Survivor, Student, Protector, Knight
by defiasstone2
Summary: Tragic events 3 years prior to the start of RWBY mean that a different Jaune comes to Beacon, with an unfamiliar face in tow. How will the future of Remnant be changed with a more experienced and cautious Jaune heading team Juniper? Perhaps there will be a new Arc to the storyline...
1. Bullheads and Familial Bonds

_It was dark, though the forest was lit with the malicious radiance of the flames that consumed what was left of the town Arcadia, the howling and roaring of Grimm as they continued their slaughter of those that remained in the town audible even at this distance. Run, that was all that could be done, run far enough to escape the negative emotions that had drawn so many Grimm to the town in the first place and pray to Monty that..._

 _Then came the ominous growling, fear gripping the heart as an alpha Beowolf appeared from the woods to the left, maw gaping with the feral hunger that all Grimm seemed to possess, red eyes narrowing a moment before it leapt forwards, claws ready and waiting to tear flesh limb from limb..._

" _Sis, sis!"_

Even as she raised her arm to block the Grimm's slavering jaws, the voice dragged her from the familiar nightmare, Amber Arc opening her eyes a little blearily as she did her best to relax her frantic breathing.

"That dream again sis? We can talk about it later, but I am afraid if you don't get you head off my shoulder soon I am not going to be able to hold back and that will get messy..." Realising at last where she was, and more importantly who was talking to her, Amber quickly shifted her head up off the comfy shoulder of her younger brother.

The reason behind the pained, almost halting manner of his speech became obvious as she looked up and saw he was turning greener by the second, the boy taking the opportunity by his new freedom to rush over to the nearest waste bin and deposit what was left of his breakfast inside. It made her laugh even though she knew it wasn't the 'nice' sibling thing to do, given what they had been through it was relieving to see that Jaune still hadn't got over the male Arc affliction.

"Well, I guess the view isn't for everyone..." The rather boisterous and amused comment drew Amber's attention to the person talking, a tall, blonde haired young woman who was stood with one arm around the shoulder of a smaller girl who seemed almost out of place given how young she looked.

"Yang! Be nice..." The smaller girl's slightly exasperated comment had a surprisingly profound effect on the blonde, her face changing to a resigned smile as she shrugged as if trying to act like she didn't care.

"Fine! You holding up okay there Vomit Boy?" Even as Jaune flipped her the finger without looking up from the bin he was using as a personal vomit collection machine, Amber decided to step in and try and save something of her little brother's pride.

"It's an unfortunate family trait that my brother has picked up from our father's side of the family. Given that he managed to last this long he is doing far better than most of my dad's side could claim." It seemed that Jaune had finally finished spewing his guts as he raised himself from the container and flashed her a thankful grin, one that became even wider when she handed him a pack of tissues and some gum.

Whilst Jaune was the idealist in the family, Amber had always been the over-prepared for anything kind of girl, meaning that if she or her family needed something it was probably in one of the multitude of pockets that she had all over her clothes. Though not even she could be prepared for everything, the dull ache in her shoulder reminding her of that even as the younger girl looked excited before pointing between the two of them in an enthusiastic manner.

"You're siblings? I thought Yang and I would be the only ones this year? Does that mean you are twins? Or did one of you graduate early like I did..." The stream of questions tailed off as the girl seemed to realise that both her and Jaune were staring at her, Jaune's expression shielded as it often was nowdays and hers tinged with a hint of amusement, the girl giving an adorable eep a moment later and shifting slightly behind the blonde who gave another sigh and patted her on the head.

"Well done there Rubes, you managed a whole 30 seconds of conversation as a big girl without letting it get awkward, but now you are back in your little girl shoes." This comment managed to make the smaller girl blush even harder, clenching her fists and looking up with an annoyed frown.

"I am not a little girl Yang. I. Drink. Milk!" Amber couldn't help it, images of a much younger Jaune using a similar line about vegetables at her when she teased him for being small fresh in her mind.

"Haha, sorry but that line reminded me so much of Jaune, you two are quite a like it seems." It took a moment for Jaune to realise what she was referring to, a glare from the boy promising future pain if she carried on stopping any thought of further teasing for the moment.

Whilst Jaune for the most part remained the cheery and somewhat dorky kid she had grown up with, it was now tempered with a steely edge and backbone of someone who could and probably had been forced to fight for his life on more than one occasion. His glare disappeared a moment later as he found himself confronted by the smaller girl, who had shifted between them so fast Amber wasn't entirely sure she hadn't teleported.

"You're big sister a pain all the time to you as well? I am Ruby, nice to meet you?" As the two seemed to bond over annoying older sisters, said older sisters took the opportunity to step back and allow their siblings to talk in relative peace.

"Despite his body language your bro seems to be a bit of a charmer at heart, Yang Xiao Long." The girl was vaguely familiar and it took a moment before Amber remembered where the connection was from.

"Signal right? You were top of your class at graduation, gave quite the show in the graduation match..." And by show she meant creamed the second placed student so hard that he was in hospital for two weeks even with his Aura helping him heal.

"That's me, though I don't recognise either you or tall and broody from our class?" Ah yes, well there was a reason for that...

" _Jaune, Jaune!"_

" _Run sis, run and don't look..."_

Seeing Yang cast her an odd look as she shivered and reached up to grab her arm, Amber decided it was best to get this out of the way now rather than try and hide it. Grabbing the hem of her elbow length glove on her right arm, Amber gave a deep breath before replying.

"I imagine you wouldn't know me, I was three years above you when I graduated, Jaune here had applied to join Signal at the same time as you. But I got waylaid by injury..." Dragging her glove down, she saw Yang's eyes widen as the mechanical arm that was attached to the stump of her elbow was revealed, though she brought the glove back up quickly so as not to attract Jaune's attention to what they were talking about.

"Wow, and here I thought Ruby would have the best story of what happened to get her into Beacon this year, I guess it's a story you don't want to discuss just yet with a stranger you just met?" Despite her rather blunt and forward attitude Amber appreciated the fact that Yang didn't seem to want to push her for the story just yet, something that earned the boisterous fellow blonde some points in her book.

"Well, as my mother would say, strangers are friends that you just haven't met yet. Amber Arc..." Reaching out with her real hand to accept Yang's hand shake, Amber decided that being three years older than everyone here wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, certainly Ruby seemed to have it worse as the youngest here by far.

And if all else failed, her eyes flicking to Jaune as the bullhead touched down at their destination, at least she would have her beloved brother...

!"£$%^&*()_+

At times like this Jaune regretted letting Amber talk him into attending Beacon Academy this year, his socially awkward fumbling had only gotten worse after... it had happened, meaning that they had only been at Beacon for three hours and he was already mentally exhausted from the socialising he had been rather unsubtly dropped into by his sister.

Looking over to where Ruby Rose had just run off back to her sister's sleeping area, Jaune chided his mental whining even as he leaned back against the wall, Crocea Mors sheathed in hand and ready just in case he needed it for whatever reason. Once they had gotten over their respective social awkwardness, helped along by similar experiences of overbearing elder siblings and a face full of red dust, Ruby had been very fun to talk to even if trying to keep up with her in depth analysis of everyone's weapons was a primary reason behind his current headache.

Reaching up and running a finger down the long scar that dominated the left side of his face, Jaune decided that it was probably for the best, despite his lack of official schooling he probably had more experience with Grimm than 90% of the people in this room and probably some of the second years now he came to think about it. That wasn't cockiness, especially given most of said people could still probably hand his ass to him in a one on one fight, but if there was one thing Jaune's experience had taught him it was that straight up fights were rare when dealing with the Grimm, especially when out in the badlands...

 _Water everywhere, his eyes, his nose and his lungs as he tried to fight against the roaring current and get back to the surface..._

 _A half burned log, probably from the destruction of Arcadia, his lifeline as he swept down the river, consciousness fading as he just about managed to strap his belt to the log and round his wrist..._

 _Waking with a coughing splutter as a thunderous growl causes his heart to skip a beat, shifting off the log just in time for an Ursa to come sauntering out of the nearby trees..._

 _Cold, bitterly cold as the wind howled through the weak array of branches he was erecting half way up a tree, doing his best to ignore the calls of Beowolves waiting below..._

Jerking awake was something that he had managed to subconsciously learn NOT to do, primarily because most of his sleeping locations during his time in the badlands had been several stories up and precarious at best, so instead his eyes merely shot open and he gripped Crocea Mors reassuringly. The now familiar weight on his shoulders instantly let him know that his sister had once again fallen into her bad habit of sleeping with him, not that he was the one who complained about it after finally being rescued and returning home.

It was probably just after dawn, given the dim and feeble light that was just starting to ease it's way through the windows in the large hall they were sleeping in, meaning there were a good couple of hours left before they actually needed to get up for initiation. With the prospect of a very grumpy Amber if he tried to move and accidentally awoke her, something he knew from experience was something for him to avoid at all costs, Jaune resigned himself to a couple of hours of training in his worst area by far.

Raising his right hand and focusing on the feeling of his Aura, something that Amber had unlocked for him the night of Arcadia Falls, Jaune summoned a dull white orb which he promptly covered with his cloak before he woke anyone up. That was unlikely though, the light hadn't been light enough to wake his sister and he doubted anyone else's senses were good enough to have reacted to it.

Doing his best to ignore his frustration as the aura ball warped and twisted in his hand, Jaune didn't notice the pair of eyes that had shot open the moment he had summoned his aura, nor did he notice them watching him as a bow flickered slightly in the darkness...

 **Another leap into another series, primarily because the idea for this story just would not stop bugging me until I wrote it down. So we have two Arc's at Beacon, one with a prosthetic and the other with a traumatic past in the Badlands before coming to Beacon, meaning he didn't have to fake his transcripts to get in.**

 **To clarify, this is not super Jaune or Mary Sue territory, RWBY and most of the other students would probably beat Jaune in a fight, primarily because they have experience fighting other humans. The Grimm however, that is where Jaune will come into his own, which will be a nice Counterbalance to Pyrrha with her semblance being OP against MOST humans.**

 **What effect will this have on the world of RWBY? What is Amber's weapon going to be? Will Cinder need to change her plans? Let me know what you think people.**

 **Defias out!**


	2. A short flight later

Despite the fact that the four kingdoms were currently in a time of peace and therefore were almost acting as one cohesive union with combined people's, there were still ways to tell the denizens of the different kingdoms apart without even having to talk to them. Atlassian's were the easiest, the richest and most advanced nation's resources and political clout meant that most Atlassian's walked with the strutting confidence that came with a subtle belief that they were better than those around them.

This Weiss girl had that self-confidence down to the point that Jaune was surprised that she didn't actually strut whilst she walked, an view on her character only reinforced by Ruby's recollections of her encounters with the white clothed girl yesterday. Now he knew he was going to be in for a repeat encounter with the haughty girl whilst trying to find his weapon locker, which he knew had been right next to Amber's yesterday but was now somehow on the other side of the school, and given she had stopped to talk to another girl in the mid 500 region he would have to get past if he wanted to get to his locker in time.

"Sorry, do you girls know where locker 636 is?" Not an entirely clever question, but the way Jaune saw it the question would give Weiss the opportunity to move out of the way and let him get on with his preparations for initiation.

"Of course, it's..." The redhead girl, who was already dressed in her battle gear, seemed surprisingly eager to help him given her companion.

"You! Do you even realise how rude it is to just interrupt someone's conversation?" Okay, if he had disliked this girl for how she had treated Ruby the day before he was verging on anger regarding her at her over the top reaction to his question, time to show he wasn't going to be pushed around, even if it was by a pretty girl.

"Eh, about as rude as mocking a guy for being scraggly despite not having talked to him or even introduced herself?" There was a giggle from somewhere behind him, from the sounds of it Yang had appreciated his response even if Weiss was looking torn between embarrassed and furious, the white haired girl seemingly stuck in a shocked pose at the nerve of him using her own complaint against her.

"So, the name's Jaune by the way, and you are?" Deciding that leaving Weiss to reboot was probably the best plan, Jaune decided to try and put all of the social anxiety lessons his family had given him into practice on her companion, who looked a little confused at his comment but still had a warm smile on her face.

"I'm Pyrrha, it's nice to meet you Jaune..." Jaune sensed rather than saw Weiss recover as a cold feeling on the back of his neck made itself known in the form of his instincts screaming at him to draw Crocea Mors, distracting him from the feeling he was getting in the back of his mind that he should know Pyrrha from somewhere.

"Jaune was it? Do you have any idea who it is you are talking to?" The niggling feeling was back, but Jaune merely shrugged and did his best smile.

"My new friend and potential new member of team Jaune? And by that I mean Pyrrha rather than you Weiss before you get into another fit..." Despite his attempts to clarify who he was talking to, it merely seemed to inscence Weiss further, stabbing forward with one of her perfectly manicured finger nails into his chest plate.

"This is THE Pyrrha Nikos! You know, the one who graduated top of her class at Sanctum? Won the Mistral tournament for 4 years running! A new record!" Whilst the first 'accolade' flew straight over Jaune's head, he had a vague memory of a newspaper with some headline along those lines after managing to escape the badlands the year before, but he knew that wasn't where her thought he knew her from.

"Eh okay, not really been paying much attention to the news over the last 3 years, lets just say that for the most part I was off the grid..." Whilst he guessed Amber had already disclosed some information to Yang and Ruby about her injury, given she was determined not to be thought of as a weakling hiding her missing arm, Jaune was not going to be opening his time here with 'oh and I spent two years fighting for my life everyday in the badlands...'. He didn't want to sound whiny or cocky damn it, and those were the only two ways such a statement would come out.

"She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmellow Flake's box!" Weiss seemed to be at the end of her tether, waving her arms manically in a frustrated manner he would probably have found cute if he had not focused solely on Pyrrha at that particular revelation.

"You!" He saw Pyrrha's smile become slightly strained, and if he had to guess it was because Weiss had almost referred to her as an unattainable goal or being, but he had promised himself he would pay his respects if he ever got out of the badlands and this seemed to be the perfect chance.

"You're the one who headed the supply donations push for the towns beyond the '4 kingdom's safe zone!' I can't even count the number of lives those supplies saved out in the Vale Badlands alone, and those are just in the towns that we rescued the supply drops for, there must have been dozens of others." Judging by the shocked expression on Pyrrha's face Jaune could tell she hadn't been expecting that from him, though it soon broke into a wide smile that seemed to fill her entire face in a way that her previous smiles hadn't.

"I-It really helped? Whilst it was one of the things I insisted on when we were writing up the contract but they seemed to think it wouldn't actually mean anything in practical terms..." Jaune nodded, glad to have told her now it seemed to have had such a meaningful impact on her mood.

"Sorry to interrupt, but are you telling us you grew up in the Badlands?" Weiss' composure seemed to have returned a little, but there was an odd steel in her eyes as she raised the secret he had accidentally brought to the fore after moments ago telling himself he wouldn't.

" _Will all new students please report to the cliffside for initiation immediately, this is your last call. All late comers WILL fail initiation."_ Saved by the bell, or in this case the Deputy Headmistress with the scary voice.

"Long story, will explain later." Moving past the two of them, who seemed to be in a similar rush after the announcement, Jaune smirked as he realised there was last comment he could make to make sure he got the last laugh.

"Oh, by the way..." Seeing both of them turn back towards him, Jaune made a shooting action with his free hand.

"I prefer the term rugged, because the ladies love a man who can handle himself in a fight, though for you snow flower I can be your scraggly man anytime." Weiss' screech of outrage was still audible as he turned and sprinted down the corridor, along with several sets of chuckling in it's wake.

Maybe he'd gone a little too far? Nah he should be fine, it's not as if he or any of his friends would pick her as a partner right? So long as she didn't straight out try and kill him there shouldn't be any problems...

[]{}#%^*+=

"Are you sure about this headmaster?" Amber's question as she watched her brother and their new friends fly off into the distance seemed to surprise Ozpin, who looked at her as if she had just broken a cardinal rule of his.

"Would you prefer to follow in your friends footsteps Ms Arc? As you pointed out earlier this morning there are an odd number of first years this year, primarily because you were meant to join last years class before your brother made his miraculous return, so if I let you go into that forest I would be denying someone their rightful partner..." The words were probably not meant to cut her as deeply as they did, but she still flinched slightly at the rebuke, way to make her out to be the bad guy there...

"So I won't be getting a partner then? How am I going to be able to do missions without a team?" Suddenly there was a giggling noise from behind her, a giggle that had become increasingly familiar over the last year, before a pair of fur covered arms wrapped themselves round her waist.

"I wouldn't say that Amber-chan... Ozpin-Sama has an idea he wants our help with." As the arms relaxed around her Amber spun round, to be confronted by a fox Faunus that stood just shorter than her at 5'3 and was dressed in the furs of animals she had probably killed and skinned herself.

Her slitted eye was filled with mirth of a prank well executed as her tail wagged back and forth behind her, the Faunus seemingly content to wait for her to say something rather than carry on speaking. While Amber couldn't say she was unhappy to see the Faunus again, the anger that was building up inside of her needed to be released.

"YOU!" Her half bellow made the fox wince, but any response she might have given was interrupted by a polite cough from Ozpin.

"As much as I don't want to interrupt, you girls have an initiation to complete, I am sure your partner can fill you in on the plan as you go..." What was Ozpin talking about, he'd already said...

Any further musing was cut short as the 'fake' jump point he had made her stand on to look like she was joining the others activated, sending both her and her new 'partner' careening skyward. Realising this had been his plan all along, Amber had the presence of mind for just one response.

"Fuck you Sir!" Whether he had heard her or not she wasn't sure, but it sure as hell made her feel slightly better as she separated herself from her Faunus jump point buddy and reached back to grab her main weapon from her back, chain unfurling with a soothing set of clanks as she focuses on her next objectives.

First she had to land safely, then she needed to find Jaune and make sure he was okay, and then they could both find out what SHE was doing suddenly reappearing back in their lives again. And if she didn't like what she heard, Ozpin might be moved down the list of people whose ass she was going to kick today...

[]{}#%^*+=

"Thank you!" His call was meant to be sincere, but Jaune wasn't entirely sure he had managed to keep the annoyance out of his voice at being pinned to a tree with a giant javelin, which he thankfully managed to remove from the tree itself with some difficulty.

It's not as if he could be too upset, given his actual 'strategy' had been to curl into a ball and summon his aura to tank the damage for him, as wasteful as that could have potentially be. Hefting Pyrrha's spear in his hand Jaune couldn't help but be impressed by the weight of it, to throw it that far and that accurately was an astounding feat all things considered.

"But we are meant to be partners!" The familiar whining call pre-empted the appearance through the bushes of the one person he didn't particularly want to see right now.

"Eh, Hi there." To her credit Weiss could give a really good glare when she wanted to, Jaune would almost have been intimidated if it hadn't been for the sight of a despondent Ruby behind her.

' _Maybe pissing her off hadn't been the best idea I've ever had...'_ One of the other things his Dad had told him was that women didn't like fawning yes men, they wanted someone with some backbone, though given the way Weiss' rapier was twitching in her hand it may have been some more bs that his dad told himself to convince him that he was smooth.

Without a word Weiss turned on her heel, striding confidently back towards Ruby and grabbing her by her hood, Ruby's face lighting up as she was dragged away, catching sight of Jaune and waving pleasantly before the duo disappeared from sight.

' _Should I tell them that they are walking entirely the wrong way? Nah, that will probably only encourage Weiss to go even further south.'_ So now all he had to do was wait for Pyrrha to arrive so they could team up, the growling from behind him letting him know that he had something with which he could pass the time at least.

"Let's see, four minor beowolves lead by a normal... Man the kingdoms have it easy." Embedding the spear into the ground next to him, as it wasn't polite to use another hunter's weapon without their permission, Jaune drew Crocea Mors from his shield/sheathe with a serene smile on his face.

Landing strategies and making friends, those he needed to work on. But killing Grimm? That was one thing that he could do REALLY well.

His mind was running through every piece of knowledge and encounter he had ever had with beowolves, condensing it down into one of two possible strategies, depending on which Grimm attacked first. Readying his blade, Jaune was unsurprised when he heard the rustling behind him of one of the minor's coming into attack him from his 'blindside', spinning with now practiced ease to deflect the claw swipe off his shield and lopping the offending limb off before performing three quick steps backwards.

Out of range of the now maimed Grimm, Jaune let himself fall into the 'motions' following the strategy in his head as he ducked and slashed his way through the other four Beowolves, modifying his plan to the subtle changes in how the Grimm reacted but not really consciously thinking about what he was doing until his blade was buried into the neck of the normal Beowolf and it collapsed with one final growl to the floor.

The sound of clapping filled the air, Jaune turning to see Pyrrha stood at the entrance to the clearing, spear back in her hand and two more minor's decomposing at her feet. Glad to have an appreciative audience, Jaune performed a slight bow before nodding gratefully up at the tree she had transfixed him too.

"Thanks for the save back there, it was far more efficient than my actual landing strategy was going to be, probably would have attracted every Grimm in the forest with the noise. Looks like you really wanted me as a partner..." The small whiff of black smoke from behind him distracted him back to the Grimm corpses, meaning he missed the blush that spread over Pyrrha's face at his comment as he grabbed a small book from inside his armour, pulling the attached pencil from the holder on it's side and opening it up to make some notes.

"Sorry, one minute and we can introduce ourselves properly, but given the rate of dispersal these Beowolves will not be here much longer and there are several obvious differences between them and the ones I have fought outside of Vale." To his surprise Pyrrha didn't seem to mind, the sound of her footsteps made it clear she was approaching and standing behind him, probably deliberately louder than she normally walked so as not to potentially catch him off-guard.

"What is it that you are writing in there? Your strategy in that fight seemed flawless, in fact I don't think I have seen anyone react so well to different Grimm attacking them from all sides before, so I don't see what you would need to critique." That was probably a compliment and a half given how much Weiss had idolised the girl in the locker room, so Jaune felt there was no harm in revealing what he was doing, especially given they would now be working together for the next four years.

"Thanks, but I know my sister could have taken these guys apart in half the time and with straight kill-shots rather than having to cripple some of them first. My strategy was fine as you said, but in the badlands if you want to survive more than a few days you have to do one of three things. Run faster, be stronger or fight smarter than the Grimm around you, and I decided that I would prefer to at least two of those." Finishing his current note on how the shoulder joint in the Beowolf's carapace was actually better protected on this Grimm than on most the one's he fought in the Badlands, Jaune offered the notebook up over his shoulder to the girl, who grabbed it enthusiastically and started leafing through it appreciatively.

"This is very interesting, the notes are surprisingly detailed, though the spelling could use some work in places. I'm very impressed Jaune, let me know if I can be of any help with this cataloging process." He ignored the obvious attempt at a joking dig about his spelling, it had really not been at the top of his list of concerns in the first few months, and instead turned to face her with a smile and extending his hand.

"That sounds great, looking forward to working with you Pyrrha, I can be the Dr Waltes to your Sherlock Holmson." She giggled again at the popular literary reference, a sound that he was finding he liked more and more each time he heard it, before accepting his hand and shaking it firmly.

"I think it would be the other way round Jaune, I am not sure I could come up with the idea that an Ursa's greatest weak point is the back of it's neck based simply on how they move their head, that's far more Holmson than Waltes." It was certain then, whilst his sister would be more than a little annoyed at not having him as a partner, there would be no complaints from him at Pyrrha having taken her place...

 **A/N: So, that chapter was a thing... As you can see I have started making some changes to the storyline, primarily regarding the relationship between Weiss and Jaune. At this point, Jaune only see's her as an arrogant and entitled Atlassian, he doesn't even know she is a Schnee yet.**

 **Whilst his rather brutal straight talking methods haven't earned him a friend with her, it is also the kind of attitude that Weiss just doesn't know how to deal with, and she isn't one to back down from a challenge so easily. Expect her to come back for more in the next few chapters, and it won't be all Jaune's way as it was in this chapter.**

 **Amber's partner will be explained further in the coming chapters, though you are all welcome to speculate as always. She is there to support an idea I have currently in my 'Ozpin' head, all about preparing the board and strengthening his position before the Queen decides to attack, as well as changing how his idea of Beacon's teams should operate out in the field.**

 **Jaune's book? This is to reinforce the fact that I will not have Jaune become a super awesome fighter without any real reason, instead he is going to be acting more like Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock Holmes. Fight smarter not harder will be his motto, and studying the Grimm is exactly the sort of thing I would see Holmes doing, despite the fact that Jaune is seemingly built like a tank.**

 **Let me know what you think guys!**

 **Defias Out!**


	3. Just dropping in!

"Wait!" Amber's preparation for her landing were halted for a moment as her 'partner' quickly and firmly re-attached herself to Amber with a grip that Amber knew would be almost unbreakable.

"You aren't going to let me die are you Amber-chan? I promise to be good and to make you lots of those orange flapjacks you like!" The promise of the delectable treats stopped Amber from removing her new limpet physically, but even as she swung her weapon round her head to complete her plan Amber spared a moment to cast a baleful glance at the younger Faunus.

"When we get down you will explain where you disappeared to, and if I don't like it..." As she finished her vague threat the ball of her two handed flail embedded itself into the nearest tree they were passing, the chain elongating slightly before turning their flight into a swing, Amber grunting at the strain the motion put on her good arm before pressing a button on the side of the flail's shaft.

The chain began to reel outwards as her feet touched the trunk of the tree, allowing her to 'run' around the tree and down towards the ground, touching down after two revolutions of the trunk and allowing a grateful Faunus to dismount from her back, though the gasping for air and kissing the ground was probably a little overkill even for her.

"Sweet, sweet ground. How I have missed you! Sorry Amber-chan, what was it you were saying?" The fox knew exactly what she had been saying, but it was the girl's way, always trying to push people's buttons and make herself memorable in anyway she could.

"As I said, if I don't like your answer of where you disappeared too..." Able to finish her threat fully now they were land bound, Amber grasped the haft of her extended flail and _pulled_ , her mechanical arm whining for a moment as it's internal motors struggled before with a series of deafening cracks the tree imploded in a spray of splinters and logs alike.

"I think you get the idea..." Huh, the threat of violence seemed to break through the playful facade that the fox faunus liked to use as a shield against everyone, the girl waving her hands frantically to try and ward Amber's anger away.

"I'm sorry Amber-chan, it's just... Have you ever considered how mad your household is? 10 people in a house that even in the badlands should probably only fit 5 or 6, it was like getting thrown in a tiger's den with all the activity and talking and shouting and..." For probably the first time Amber realised that perhaps she hadn't considered everything when the girl had up and disappeared about 3 weeks after she arrived, and that also probably explained why Jaune had been completely unconcerned about her disappearance and had merely promised the family that she needed some time.

"Fear of heights and a fear of confined spaces? Wow, you really like to keep yourself interesting Tangerine..." The girl winced but surprisingly didn't fly into her usual apocalyptic rage that came with someone using her full name, shifting a little uncertainly back and forth before she spoke again.

"Can you call me Rine please Amber-chan? And I am sorry for running off, but after living most of my life in the wilderness... I just needed time to adjust and as lovely as your family is they don't really understand the meaning of the words 'personal space' and 'alone time'." Amber chuckled, that much was certainly true, given that there were only 4 bedrooms in their house every Arc was long used to the idea of sharing a room with at least one of their siblings, and activities in the bathroom were often done at the same time as long as they didn't directly interfere with each other.

As her flail continued it's slow recoiling into her haft, she smiled and raised her free hand to gesture the girl into a hug, which the girl happily accepted with a hint of her usual cheeriness returning.

"Don't worry about it Rine-chan, I suppose that it's hard for us to understand how an outsider would struggle dealing with our little family..." The use of the word little regarding her family made Rine giggle, though any further conversation was cut short by the sound of growling from just ahead of them, the two separating quickly as several Beowolves stalked into the clearing.

"Let's deal with these quickly, then we need to hurry and catch up with Jaune... And the others, we are behind given our late start." She saw Rine's tail flick slightly, showing that she had caught her unintentional focus on Jaune, but she didn't comment before drawing her own weapon from her belt.

"Sure Amber-chan, the one who kills the most get's to hug Jaune-kun first right?" Trying to ignore the knowing tone in the girl's voice, Amber flicked her flail out with her fastest draw speed, the extending chain catching the Beowolf she targeted by surprise and catching it full in the face-mask.

"Sure, 1 to me then..." All things considered, there were probably worse people for Ozpin to decide to pair her up with...

!"£$%^&*()_+

"Monty damn it, Pyrrha it's gaining on us!" Jaune's shout prompted the spartan to increase her pace, showing that despite two years of hardening up he still had a way to go in terms of fitness.

' _Who lets a freaking deathstalker grow to that size in a training area that you throw new students in? And here I thought that the Headmaster's eccentric behaviour was just a front.'_ Activating his aura, Jaune swung out with Crocea Mors, the aura extending the length of the blade and allowing him to cut straight through a fair sized tree before pushing off on the now severed trunk with all his might to send it careening towards the deathstalker.

The deathstalker didn't seem particularly fazed by the unconventional attack, but it was forced to slow as it grabbed the tree with both pincers and tore it apart, giving Jaune a bit of breathing room until it could build up speed again. He sighed even as he tried to catch up with his partner again, all he had wanted to do was investigate the cave drawings that looked like they had been their for centuries, if he had known the pebble he accidentally kicked into the cave was going to wake up this damn thing he would have stayed the hell away

"Ruins ahead Jaune, this looks like it might be the place!" The sound of someone screaming above them made Jaune look up as the trees started to thin, the ominous sight of a Nevermore almost distracting him from the rapidly falling red cloaked figure he recognised as Ruby.

Given how far she was falling, and the fact that terror seemed to have stopped her from thinking consciously about using her gun-scythe to slow her descent, the chances of a heavy injury were very likely if he didn't intervene. Even as he and Pyrrha cleared the tree line his mind was littering the scene with angles and velocities, probably trajectories that gave him only a single chance to save Ruby before she hit the ground.

"Pyrrha, need a step there!" Pointing in front and to the left where a small mound suddenly dropped into a little gully, he was glad that Pyrrha didn't take the time to ask questions and simply did as he asked, slipping into place in the gully and bracing her shield above her head.

Pumping Aura into his legs, Jaune dropped both his weapon and shield before beginning his sprint, they would slow him down too much and not allow him the lift he needed. He covered the distance in less than a second, Jaune almost felt like he was flying given the sheer speed he was currently generating, three steps getting him to the top of the mound and the fourth onto Pyrrha's shield, the girl once again showing her strength as she bent slightly before heaving him in Ruby's direction.

The additional push meant that Jaune very nearly missed the younger hunter, only just managing to grab her cloak with both hands as they passed each other, the girls velocity turning his arcing jump into a much more rapid descent. Still he managed to heft her into his arms properly before flinging her up and dropping into a heavy roll, his body protesting at the sudden deceleration that comes with impacting the ground at high speed.

Rolling into a crouched position Jaune held out his arms and caught Ruby for a second time, wincing slightly as his left shoulder almost gave out from the punishment he had given it from the fall, roll and now catching Ruby.

"And he completes the sequence with a perfect final catch, the judges have to be impressed with this doubles performance by the Yellow Rose team!" His joking proclamation was merely meant to distract Ruby from the fall, but to his surprise there was actual cheering from his left as Yang came running up, with a tall black haired girl in tow.

"That was incredible Jaune, I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to reach her in time." Looking down at a heavily blushing Ruby, who seemed to have just realised what had happened, Jaune shifted his arms to let her stand back on her feet.

"You okay Rubes? I mean this isn't the first time you've just _dropped in_ unannounced on us, if I didn't know any better I would say you are trying to make Jaune _fall_ for you." Despite the terrible puns Jaune couldn't help but chuckle,Yang was obviously trying to hide her concern for her sister behind her puns and joking attitude, something that Ruby didn't seem to catch onto as she turned scarlet and looked absolutely horrified.

Then, suddenly both sisters stopped and turned to look at him strangely, Ruby's face twisting into a look of confusion whilst Yang's was almost... hopeful?

"Did you just... laugh at one of Yang's puns?" Ruby's faltering question seemed a little out of place, and character really, but Jaune decided to answer the question honestly as he didn't really know what he had done wrong.

"Er, partially that and the situation? Was I not meant to or something?" Judging by the rapid nodding of Ruby's head he should have denied all knowledge of what he had done, but before Yang could react the black haired girl pointed back at the Nevermore with a slight concerned look on her face.

"Is that... Your partner falling from that Nevermore now Ruby?" Turning to eye the falling white speck that was getting closer and closer Jaune sighed even as Pyrrha caught up with them, carrying his sword and shield he had dropped, if he didn't catch Weiss after catching Ruby he would never hear the end of it.

"Yang, I am going to need you and your partner to keep the Deathstalker busy whilst Pyrrha and I rescue Weiss." Even as Pyrrha nodded in understanding and the two began running towards the falling girl he heard Yang shout out to him in confusion.

"What Deathstalker?" As if on cue Jaune had to duck as several trees on the edge of the clearing were sent flying towards them by the arrival of said giant scorpion, Yang's nervous giggle making him sigh even as Pyrrha got herself in position. "Oh, THAT deathstalker..."

Weiss better consider them even for his comments yesterday after this, otherwise he was going to leave the lot of them to the Grimm...

!"£$$%^&*()_+

It had been a tough fight after that, though Jaune still thought the closest he had come to dying had been at the hands of Weiss after he chuckled at Yang's pun of her being 'catch of the day' material with her still in his arms. Still, a fight against a giant Deathstalker and a Nevermore could have gone a lot worse, especially when they were separated with the bridge collapsing in the ruins.

The team ceremony had been a pain, though given they weren't the last teams to arrive he assumed the others could have been waiting much longer than they had, even if they didn't have to contend with giant grimm in order to get there. Being picked as team leader had been an unexpected but pleasant surprise, though not as big a surprise as the one he was currently experiencing looking up at the names being announced on the big screen.

"Tangerine Sangria and Amber Arc picked the Black Queen piece, and will form the first iteration of Beacon's support team network with the Team name Tea, lead by Tangerine Sangria." Tangerine's appearance was quite a shock to Jaune, especially given the last Scroll message he had received from her indicated she was heading back towards the edge of Vale's safe zone, but it seemed her and Amber had reconciled a little given the arm the older girl had around the younger girl's shoulder.

"Tangerine? Her mother must really have wanted her hatred when she was younger." Yang's comment brought back memories, Jaune's mind flicking back in that moment to what he assumed was his third day in the Badlands, the moment he had met her for the first time.

*flashback*

 _He jerked awake to the sound of Beowolves howling, a not entirely unfamiliar sound he had been subjected to over the last forty hours or so. What was different was forgotten for a moment as his jerking had forced him out of his resting place on a particularly wide branch he had found, his short cry cut shorter as he just about managed to get one arm around the branch, arresting his fall in a jarring motion that made his already tired and aching muscles protest once more._

" _Remember Tangerine-chan, aim for the area just below the jaw or beneath the shoulder, your strikes are not enough to pierce their armour directly." Now he realised what it was that had awoken him, a human voice! Looking down, Jaune realised the Beowolves had all moved away from him, probably towards the sound of the fighting, meaning he had a chance to get down and get help._

" _Mum! I told you not to call me that!" Leaping down, Jaune ignored the ache in his knees at the landing, what little aura he had left could heal it slowly as he made his way as quietly as he could to where he could hear the voices coming from._

 _It was a young looking Faunus girl and what had to be her mother, the girl darting around as she engaged two Beowolves with a pair of underarm blades, the older Faunus glancing over in Jaune's direction before flicking her halberd round to cave in the skull of a Beowolf who had tried to sneak up on her. With a cry of victory the girl, Tangerine he assumed her name was, managed to slice the neck of one of the Beowolves neck's, though that changed to a cute 'oof!' of surprise as the dying Grimm fell on her before she had a chance to react._

 _With the other three Grimm closing in and no signs of the older Faunus moving to help her, Jaune used what little courage he had found during the fall of Arcadia to charge forwards with an attempt at a battle cry, his opening slash causing the nearest Beowolf to dodge back with a pained growl as Crocea Mors opened a 6 inch long gash in it's side._

 __" _Interesting..." Even as the Grimm reared up and Jaune regretted his earlier rashness, the woman's voice filling his ears before the Grimm was bisected in a blow so powerful and so fast that it took Jaune a second to realise what had actually happened, the other two Grimm looking at each other before backing away slowly and disappearing back into the shady woods._

" _I never thought I would see another human in the Badlands risk his life for my daughter and I, let alone one with so little training when he knows that fighting the Grimm unprepared is a dance with death that he will probably not survive." With a grunt the woman grabbed the Beowolf corpse that was still on top of her daughter, lifting it enough for her the girl to shuffle out, obviously embarrassed by what had happened as she tried to look anywhere but at her mother._

" _What is your name human? And what are you doing out here? The nearest human settlement is at least 15 miles away..." Despite her relaxed stance Jaune couldn't shake the feeling she was merely waiting for him to make the wrong sort of gesture towards her, or more importantly her daughter, and his life would be over before he even had chance to realise what had happened..._

 _*Flashback End*_

"Just call her Rine and you will be fine Yang, call her by her full name and she can be downright vicious..." Phantom pain of claws down the side of his face served as a reminder even as Amber's arm on her shoulder seemed to be the only thing stopping Rine from jumping at Ozpin.

"Another girl Jaune? With your love/hate relationship with the Schnee heiress and now a foxy Faunus, you certainly like to live dangerously lover boy." The mention of Weiss' surname brought Jaune's other thoughts to a complete stop, but before he could confirm her relationship to the Schnee dust company a speeding orange blur leapt down from the stage and grabbed him like a limpet, Amber following up behind at a far more sedate pace.

"Jaune-kun! I missed you, I missed you so much!" With the one eyed fox Faunus now nuzzling into his chest, Jaune knew she wouldn't be letting go anytime soon, even with most of the hall staring at the two of them with a mixture of emotions ranging from amusement to disgust.

"Jaune-kun eh?" Judging from the amused look both Yang and Amber were giving him, this was going to not be a fun or non-embarrassing situation for him.

"Rine, meet Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee?" The questioning glance at Weiss was met with a disbelieving look from the white haired girl before she sighed and nodded imperiously.

"So you mean that you had no idea who I was? I suppose your earlier boorishness makes sense now..." Glancing over at his sister, whose mechanical arm was only as advanced as it was because of a favour the elder Schnee had decided to grant them at his mother's request, Jaune knew he had best try and repair the bridges as surreptitiously as he could lest Weiss be the one put in charge of getting the favour cashed in.

"Yes, apologies for that, but two years in the badlands do not lend themselves to concentrating on current events or etiquette. If you think I am bad, wait till Rine gets going, she can give you a run for your money Yang..." During that brief interaction Jaune noticed that said fox girl had been bodily removed from him and was currently in a staring contest with Nora, the normally hyperactive pink haired girl with a blank expression on her face as she stared into Rine's unfaltering one eyed gaze, before the pink haired girl gave a slight nod and raised her finger to Rine's nose.

"Boop!" Rine giggled, her nose was one of her more ticklish spots after all, and Ren gave the usual long suffering sigh he seemed to keep just for Nora's antics.

"Well, that settles it, Nora only uses the boop signal on people she likes, so Rine is stuck with us now whether she likes it or not." Nora merely shrugged non-committedly before pointing at Rine's tail.

"Can I pet it?" Jaune noticed both Amber and strangely Blake wince at the rather blunt request, but Rine merely gave him a look, probably to try and understand quite how offended she should actually be.

"In Vale and the four Kingdom's in general, it is considered bad taste to ask to interact with a Faunus' animal extremities Rine, but from what I have understood thus far Nora isn't one to conform to 'normal'." Nora turned and beamed at him whilst nodding rapidly, whilst Weiss and a couple of the others were casting him an odd look, before Weiss snapped her fingers in understanding.

"Your right Jaune-Jaune, if me and Ren listened to other people then we would have to be _together-together_!" The actual sound of horror in her voice at the idea of her and Ren hooking up was probably not meant to be intentionally funny, but given the relieved look on Ren's face as she said that Jaune couldn't help the wide smile that came over his face, though he managed to not burst out into laughter like Pyrrha and Yang did behind him.

"What are you all laughing at? Jaune-Jaune, tell me! You're all so mean... Rine, does that eyepatch give you super-secret powers that we can use on these meanies?" And with that Nora was gone, dragging a surprisingly receptive Rine with her and leaving the group to watch them with amusement mixed with slight dread.

"Ren, Nora isn't going to hold this against us right?" The young martial artist looked the most relaxed Jaune had seen him all evening, though his eyes didn't leave where Nora and Rine were muttering together even as he answered Ruby's question.

"Probably not, not unless Rine would try and encourage her into trying to prank us or something like that..." With that Jaune felt the cold wind of fate down the back of his neck, and resolved to try and bribe his way back into Rine's good books as fast as possible, before she and his new bunk mate decided to unleash hell upon them all...

[]{}#%^*+=

"Goodnight Jaune. Ren. Nora." Receiving two responses and a soft snore from the now tired out Valkyrie, Pyrrha settled back in her bed with a contented smile on her face, even if it had been a busy day and a hectic year in general.

The media had been all over her emigration to Vacuo and enrolling to Beacon, depending on which country the media outlet was trying to appeal to she was either painted as an unpatriotic villain who abandoned her country or Beacon's greatest enrolment acquisition in a generation. The choice had not been an easy one, but Pyrrha had grown more than a little weary of her celebrity status in Mistral along with pedestal that people placed her upon, she was a Mistralian and such fawning did not make her comfortable.

' _We of Mistral are born alone and we die alone, only those that we share blood with can be trusted at our sides, and only those we have bled with guarding our backs...'_ It was a phrase her mother had drilled into her head whilst they were training in her youth, and despite the fact she disagreed with the main unspoken message it certainly summed up the Mistralian attitude towards the other kingdoms and life in general, something Haven had great difficulty dealing with in their attempts to train their four person teams that had become the bread and butter of Hunter deployments.

Given the harsh topological layout and variation that Mistral boasted, not to mention the variety of threats ranging from Grimm to pirates, hardiness, self-reliance and strength of arms were revered in equal measure. It was something that had made Pyrrha stand out in a bad light in her first Mistral tournament actually, going easier on her first round opponents than she needed to to hide her strength and actually caring for their well being after she beat them, but it was something that enamoured the other kingdoms towards her and led to her popularity growing immensely by the end of the tournament.

' _Still, seems not everyone knows me as the 'Invincible Girl'...'_ Glancing over to Jaune's bed, her partner and new team leader looking absolutely adorable in his onesie, Pyrrha was glad she had ended up with him rather than anyone else.

" _You're the one who headed the supply donations push... I can't even count the number of lives those supplies saved...'_ It had been something she had tried after her second win in the Mistral tournament, primarily because she wanted to some good with her newfound fame, even if it did cause a storm online as every Mistralian and their mother tried to come up with a good reason for why she would do such a thing.

If she hadn't already been leaning towards Jaune as a partner, primarily because he wasn't acting all fangirl-esque like Weiss and seemed nice enough, his sheer gratitude for what SHE had done despite the lack of positive response in Mistral had sealed the deal. Whilst he didn't seem in too much trouble during the start of initiation, using Milo not only helped him from attempting a more 'impromptu' landing but also made it easier for her to track down his location as quickly as possible, though given the clinical slaughter she found on her arrival it seemed she had found the one person who could help patch up a weakness of hers.

She had borrowed his notebook again that evening, leafing through the pages to find information on Grimm that she hadn't even considered before, such as how Beowolf packs arranged themselves when sleeping into defensive positions or that Boarbatusks could be lead into traps due to their love of mud baths. It was fascinating and whilst not useful to her or most front line hunters, it was the sort of thing that would be invaluable to normal people who had to fight the Grimm everyday when the hunters were spread too thinly to assist them...

Something to think about on the morrow she thought sleepily, as her eyes closed slowly and steadily and her thoughts became fuzzier, for now she was content to enjoy her first day at Beacon and all of the true friends she has made along the way. Now if only she could convince Weiss that Jaune wasn't in fact a barbaric ruffian out to steal her maidenhood it would be perfect...

Cheeks colouring slightly as the image of a partially dressed Jaune from earlier in the evening came to mind, Pyrrha had to stop herself from mentally giving her support to the idea, certainly not until the fourth date...

 **A/N: This chapter span a little out of control at points there, but given it's increased size I don't think people will mind the result very much. People will notice I didn't particularly focus on the Deathstalker/Nevermore fight, primarily because like the Wave mission in Naruto it has become an almost cliched plot point where everyone tries to come up with a way of altering the fight, and this leads to one of two results.**

 **Either they change something and it has not net change on the end fight result, or they have an OP member (usually Jaune in the stories I read) who seems somehow capable of taking at least one of the beasts by himself. In the latter case it destroys the team work dynamic formed by these fights, in the former there really isn't much point in writing the scene as it might as well be canon.**

 **So I have made my minor changes before the start of the fight and left it at that, apologies if you guys wanted me to write the fight but I think you would prefer this chapter quickly rather than waiting for me to mull over that fight for ages to try and make it different.**

 **I received a review indicating that they like my cultural generalisation of Atlassians and requested one for Mistral as well, which got me thinking onto my next change to the usual 'fanon' of the series, why did Pyrrha move to Beacon? There are several possible explanations but what I am wanting to exam in this story is the reaction to the move by both Vale and Mistral, as well as the rest of Remnant of course.**

 **I've only hinted at the backlash for now, but it would certainly add a heat to the interactions between JNPR and the Haven teams if they were pissed off at her 'abandoning' her country. Let me know what you guys think!**


	4. A Weiss Change of View

Weiss Schnee was... irritated, both at her childish team leader and the blonde haired ruffian in charge of team JNPR, but mostly at Jaune and not for the reasons that most people would have predicted based on their interactions thus far.

"That infuriating, two faced... Okay Weiss, deep breaths..." Doing her best to control her muttered outburst and general emotional turmoil, Weiss sent a glare at Yang, who gave her usual light hearted chuckle before turning to her with a smile.

"You still got your panties in a twist over the Boarbatusk thing? As far as most people are concerned you handled yourself fine, so _Weiss_ are you still so upset over it?" Weiss' anger at Jaune faltered for a moment as she remembered her fight in Professor Port's class that day, whilst most people would have been overjoyed at the outcome, she held herself to a higher standard and to have allowed the Boarbatusk to hit her was a failing in her eyes.

"Boarbatusk's aren't native to Atlas, so it isn't like I have studied them much, but that's not what I am angry about!" Suddenly Weiss realised she might have said too much, Yang's eyes filling with mirth as she seemed to realise what she was actually upset about, after all it isn't like there had been time for her to get angry about anything else...

 _*Flashback*_

 _She'd done it, felling a Boarbatusk in front of the whole class and in style, to the applause of her classmates and Professor Port who started rambling on about the beast in question. Still, even as she climbed the stairs back to her seat Weiss couldn't help but start mentally berating her own performance, she could have finished that in half the time if she had been faster or more precise in her initial strike._

 _*THUNK* The noise made her look up from her notes, the small notepad with a sticky note attached lying audaciously in front and to her right, though a quick glance to her right showed Ruby with the same look of confusion on her face meaning it hadn't been her that put it there._

 _Grabbing the book before her leader could, Weiss read the note as quickly as she could so that she could then get back to her class notes, though she had trouble not turning around and flinging the notebook back at it's owner given her frustration at the situation._

 _ **Weiss,**_

 _ **Good performance, but you might find Pages 30-34 useful for future encounters with Boarbatusk Grimm. Let me know if you have any of your own insights.**_

 _ **Jaune**_

 _Sinking back into her seat and trying not to let her frustration show, Weiss tried to decide whether she was furious at the message and the indication that Jaune thought she needed help, or confused over the change in attitude that had continued over from the day before. Ever since the boy seemed to realise she was a Schnee his attitude had changed, and whilst she didn't mind people being more polite to her than he had been originally, it wasn't the usual fawning brown nosing she received from most people when they realised who she was._

 _It was almost as if he was... afraid of upsetting her for some reason, and given the fact he had admitted to living in the Vale badlands for some unspecified period of time, the implications about possible Schnee activities out beyond the well structured and monitored Kingdom holdings concerned her. For all she would defend the SDC to the point of exhaustion in public, Weiss wasn't blind or stupid, she knew that her father had started moving the company into practices that were questionable at best, it wasn't as if all the classified information and off the books meetings could be classed as 'subtle'._

 _But for all her investigating Weiss hadn't found any SDC links to Vale beyond the transportation of dust, it was one of the reasons she had accepted the offer from Beacon actually, so if the Schnee name did inspire fearful respect out of someone like Jaune than she could only dread to think what other dark deeds were being hidden from her..._

 _*Flashback End*_

"Oh, well if it isn't the fight it must have been something to do with that 'present' from Jaune... Did you not like what was inside that little notebook? I will admit that I didn't think Jaune would be the type to write you love letters given your first meeting, but they do say opposites attract..." Yes, she had definitely said too much, Yang was not going to let this one go unless she showed them the book.

"I haven't had time to read it yet, as unlike you and our 'glorious' team leader I was actually listening to the lecture rather than doodling away or flirting with boys across the classroom." She wasn't going to risk revealing the book until she knew what was inside, last thing she wanted was to hand it over and find out that it actually had been a poem or something equally as embarrassing.

"So cold Weiss..." Yang looked like she was about to continue when Ruby appeared between them, though surprisingly she was focussed on Yang rather than Weiss for a change.

"What is in that book is not something you have a right to pester her about Yang, besides don't you have gym class on the other side of the school in about five minutes?" Yang looked at her scroll before shrugging, only to sigh and nod her head as Ruby crossed her arms and presumably stared her down.

"I suppose I shouldn't miss a class on the first day after we were late to our first one, though don't think this is over Weiss, I will find all your juicy gossip out one way or another..." And with that Yang turned on her heel and headed down the corridor, her pace moderate despite the distance she had to cover.

"Phew, I almost think I wouldn't be able to do that..." Even as Ruby seemed to wilt from her commanding pose to her usual socially awkward self, Weiss was surprised to find herself thankful for the intervention from the normally passive girl, it said a lot about the girl's determination to be a good team leader for her to stand up to her older sister on her behalf.

"I assume this isn't just a ploy to find out what is in the book for yourself?" Not that she would let Ruby off the hook just yet, as far as Weiss was concerned she was still the far better leader for the team.

"Of course not, I mean I would like to know but I don't want to try and intrude as Jaune specifically dropped it on your desk, even if I am team leader and I want to make sure that he hasn't been horrible with what he's written..." If Weiss could imagine having a younger sibling, this is probably how they would end up in her mind, and despite her irritation with how carefree the girl acted more often than not, Weiss couldn't bring herself to truly hate the girl who ground to a halt in her usual unsure manner.

"As much as I... appreciate you stepping in to control your sister, I can handle myself Ruby..." It was painful to give her thanks for something she could have easily dealt with herself, but the beaming smile that Ruby gave her did warm Weiss' heart a little, even as they arrived at their next class.

"I know you can, but it doesn't mean you have to, as team leader it is my responsibility to maintain team harmony... Or at least I think it is..." Despite how unbecoming such an action would be, Weiss had to resist the urge to facepalm even as they all entered the Physics lab, primarily because it would impact negatively on her leaders already fragile confidence.

"Let's just get sat down, and I better not see you doodling again like you were in the last class..." Ruby's head dropped a little at the admonishment, but if she couldn't be the official leader then Weiss was going to make damn sure that everyone knew she was the unofficial one, which was why she had selected the leader's set of classes alongside Ruby.

Beacon did, alongside a main set of core classes such as Grimm studies and History, a variety of 'specialisation' class choices that young hunters could choose from in their first year, each aimed at giving different groundings that would suit roles within a team. For those like Yang, who were almost solely interested in improving their combat activities, there was a range of classes focussed on improving their skills and conditioning like Aura enhancement and gym. Leader classes, such as the one they were in now, were meant to improve not only the strategic thinking of the attendees but their overall knowledge.

Blake had chosen the Scouting class set, which given her natural talents towards the ability made a lot of sense in Weiss' head, but whether she had anything to actually learn from the class Weiss wasn't so sure.

"Ruby, Weiss, over here!" The polite greeting from Pyrrha got both girls attention, and Weiss followed Ruby over as the scythe wielder waved enthusiastically in response.

"Pyrrha, what are you doing here? Not that I don't think you shouldn't be in the leader's class, but I thought Jaune would have... I'll shut up now." The warm laugh of the Mistral champion managed to bring a smile to Ruby's face despite her embarrassment, Weiss taking the seat on the other side of the tall red head as she nodded in understanding.

"That is what I thought as well this morning, I was intending to join the combat class but Jaune held a team meeting and laid out his plan that had us all attending different class sets and then having study sessions afterwards to ensure that we all have a fundamental understanding of the different areas we may need to fill as part of the team." Weiss' opinion of the blonde rose several notches at this statement, it was probably one of the best ideas she had heard since she had arrived here, other than the idea of bunk beds in the RWBY team HQ.

"Still, wouldn't it make sense for him to be here given he is the leader of your team? I know he has quite the practical knowledge on Grimm but he cannot be so arrogant as to assume he cannot learn more about leading?" The fact that Weiss now desperately wanted to join these study sessions remained a thought for now, she could always 'stumble' upon the group later this evening and get invited by proxy without having to do the demeaning thing of asking to be there.

"Actually Jaune requested I come here for that reason, he doesn't want to be the only one capable of leading the team or coming up with strategies, his precise words were 'two minds are always better than one' and that there may come a time where he is busy fighting and therefore not able to come up with strategies himself." As the class quieted, signalling the arrival of their teacher, Weiss had a chilling thought as to another possible reason that Jaune might not have chosen this class.

She had hardly been subtle in her desire to be the team leader of RWBY, which means that for an intelligent person it wouldn't take much to work out which class set she was planning on taking, and if Jaune was actually afraid of Schnee's for whatever reason...

With a small frown on her face, Weiss resolved to have a look through the little book he had given her at the first opportunity, then she could use the return of it to try and get a better handle on the boy and what had caused his sudden change in attitude...

[]{}#%^*+=

"Jaune-Jaune, you are the best leader ever!" Jaune had to admit he enjoyed the look of shock on Ren's normally stoic face, even as he felt his breastplate start to buckle under the sheer strength of Nora's hug.

"Wait, why is she happy? You sent her to the crafting class set, I honestly thought we would be getting messages about her destroying half the school out of boredom..." Amber's comment showed he was the only one who had read the entire class set list last night, rather than skimming through the class titles for interesting sounding ones.

"I'm not that bad... And I'm happy because Jaune-Jaune sent me to the class with explosions in it! Professor Ivan even gave me some ideas on how to improve Magnhild's awesomeness!" The rapid switching of emotions along with the cute pout would normally have caused Jaune to smile, if it weren't for the fact he was already laughing his head off at the others, who all bar Rine and Pyrrha were now grabbing scrolls to look at the class lists again.

"Jaune, you sent Nora to the... Demolitions class?" For the first time Yang actually sounded a little concerned, even as Ruby inched her chair away from a now cackling Nora as discreetly as she could.

"Are you trying to tell me that it doesn't suit her style? And me and her have an agreement that should keep her focussed, right Nora?" The cackling stopped as quickly as it started, Nora looking dead serious before she pulled three separate notebooks out of her bag.

"One for each class fearless leader! And only minor doodles of how I will break your legs if you don't deliver me pancakes as promised..." The casual threat only made Jaune nod as he looked through the first sheaf of notes, surprised despite himself at the level of detail the hammer wielder had included, smile gracing his face once more before holding his hand out for Nora to shake.

"One extra pancake per set of lesson notes, along with five blueberry pancakes every weekend, handmade by me..." As Nora grabbed his hand to shake, Jaune just had enough strength to stop her initial attempt whilst he finished speaking.

"And no using explosives on the team unless there is a threat to one of us and that is the only way to save us, understand?" Given the explosive pink glitter balls in all their beds this morning (barring Ren's of course), it was a caveat that Jaune was going to insist on before letting Nora proceed any further.

"Hmmm..." Nora frowned, obviously weighing up the pancakes vs explosives use equation in her head, before raising her free hand and pressing down on the end of his nose.

"Boop, you drive a hard bargain Jaune-Jaune. You better make good pancakes..." And with that Jaune lost her to her usual rapidly changing train of thought, but the objective had been completed regardless and that was what mattered.

"Jaune, did you just _bribe_ Nora into doing her work? And then use the bribe to compromise with her into not pranking us with explosives again? And Nora agreed to that?" Ruby was now looking at him in a mixture of awe and disbelief, obviously amazed at the compromise that had been reached.

"It's all about knowing how to deal with the people in your team Ruby, Pyrrha and Ren are the type of people who will understand why they should do something if you explain to them why, but Nora is more of a 'trust and act' type of girl. As long as you reward her for good work, she will always see a benefit to keeping up her end of the bargain. Everyone is unique, and a good leader will recognise that they can't just shout orders and expect people to fall in line." He had learned that the first time the Grimm had attacked Rine's village, a costly lesson indeed...

 _*Flashback*_

 _It had not been an easy task for Jaune to persuade the leaders of the nearby Faunus village to allow him sanctuary, even if it was only temporary until he could find out where he was and how to get back to Vale proper, the fact that he was human less of a factor than the fact that he was an unknown person and another mouth to feed._

" _I don't know why you volunteered for the night watch human, but if you are thinking of betraying us..." The speaker, a relatively elderly deer faunus armed with a crossbow and a short spear, had probably spent more time watching him than he had outside the walls of the 30 house settlement._

" _Quiet Gramps, he helped me when he didn't have to remember, and I don't think he could really lie to save his life..." The 'help', if it could be termed that, came from the young girl he had helped the day before, who was entirely focussed on scanning the edge of the treeline._

 _It was due to her mother that Jaune had been able to enter the village, the older fox Faunus obviously having quite the pull inside the settlement given how quickly her intervention had changed the decision, so Jaune had decided to help out any way he could as a method of thanks..._

 _Something that had been bothering him for the last 10 minutes recaptured his attention as the old Faunus carried on his complaining, Jaune turning back to the forest with a frown on his face. It took less than a minute for him to confirm his hypothesis and he turned to Tangerine and muttered his concern to her as quietly as he could_

" _It's too quiet..." To his surprise the girl didn't immediately dismiss his concern, but the huff of disdain from behind him meant that the old faunus had heard him as well._

" _Of course it is quiet boy, it is night time, I don't know what it is like in your smarmy little safe cities..." Jaune had put up with more than enough, especially given that if he was right then they were all in danger right now._

" _Yes, it is night time, but where are the sounds of the owls and other night animals? At the start of the shift we could even hear some wolves off in the distance, now there is nothing! Animal's only quiet like that for one reason and that is because of Grimm, and a lot of them at that!" Jaune's snarled reply seemed to have broken what restraint the deer Faunus seemed to have, raising his crossbow threateningly at him._

" _You talk a lot of shit for a pampered little human, I oughta gut you right here and throw you over that wall..." Before Jaune could reply there was a cry from the opposite wall, before the sounds of gunfire indicated that Jaune had been right, though given the sudden cacophony of howls that sounded from all around them he might not have much time to gloat about it..._

 _!"£$%^ &*()_+_

"Jaune... Jaune!" The repeated calls of his name drew Jaune from his memory, giving an apologetic shrug to Ruby as she seemed to relax at his returning focus.

"Sorry Ruby, got lost in memories for a moment... Now, shall we get started on our studying? If we get it done quickly we can play a game or something..." That seemed to divert people's concern, as Ruby started speaking about what they had learned in their classes that day, with Pyrrha joining in whenever she felt something needed explaining in further detail.

Whilst it wasn't the same as attending the classes themselves, the general information would still be useful to everyone on the teams, despite the already tired look on Yang's face as Blake wrote the information down next to her. It seemed to be a good thing for Ruby though, as the younger girl motioned and darted around in her seat enthusiastically.

She wasn't the only one as first one and then two hours went by, even Blake having to withhold yawns as she spoke about what she and Jaune had learned in their first scouting classes,making Jaune realise that he might have to alter his strategy with them now covering all 6 different class sets rather than the four he had originally planned for.

"I think that will do for the night, otherwise I may have to carry Nora back to the dorm with me. Obviously we will have to come up with a different method of doing this given the extra people and classes, but for now I think we will all need a good night's sleep before the first combat class tomorrow." There were several tired nods of agreement before suddenly a pair of arms wrapped themselves firmly round his neck and a head rested firmly on his shoulders.

"Giddy up horsie, your queen is tired..." Despite the weight on his shoulders Jaune decided that he really didn't mind, even as the others packed up their stuff, maybe coming to Beacon wouldn't be quite as difficult an experience as he had first imagined.

Though, maybe he should have told the three present members of team RWBY and his sister that Nora's restriction on explosives ONLY applied to the three other team JNPR members... No need, Jaune was sure that would become clear soon enough...

!"£$%^&*()_+

It had been a challenging day, even by Weiss' own high standards, though as she stepped into RWBY's dorm room Weiss knew that the reason for her exhaustion was more due to the emotional and mental turmoil she was experiencing rather because of the physical exertion of her classes.

" _Do you really believe that acting in such a manner would cause those in power to reconsider their decision?"_

" _Hone your skills, perfect your techniques! And be not the best leader, but the best person you can be..."_

It was easy for Professor Port to say, whilst Weiss was aware that she could act a little spoiled at times, given the White Fang attacks on her family it wasn't as if she had many friends growing up to help her with socialising. It had taken a long walk through the grounds to even admit that much to herself, though in her defence her 'partner' was nothing but an immature and awkward...

' _Stop with the excuses Weiss, you've been difficult to Ruby since the start despite the fact she has only tried to befriend you, the only one stopping you from having friends is yourself.'_ Great, and now she was berating herself mentally as well, this place really had done a number on her.

At times like this, Weiss fell back on the one true measure of social interaction she had ever put her faith in, what would Winter do? And as she approached the bunk bed she and Ruby shared and pulled back the cover that was preventing the light Ruby was using from illuminating the entire room, Weiss knew that her sister would reconcile her differences first, and then seek to build the relationship from there.

"Ruby..." Whilst she would normally be unwilling to awaken someone from their slumber, especially given how cute Ruby looked even whilst dozing, Weiss wanted to get this out of the way tonight so that they could start afresh in the morning...

That and it would be irresponsible of her to leave her partner face first in her notes in what would undoubtedly become a painful position by morning, especially given the younger girl was clearly making a determined effort to make up for the two years of Academy training that she missed by graduating early.

"Weiss!" As Ruby started her usual muttering ramble, which wasn't aided by her drowsiness in the slightest, Weiss put her hand to the younger girl's mouth and then indicated to the door.

Ruby seemed to understand her intent and groggily got up and followed Weiss out into the corridor, and from there they went to the kitchen area they shared with team JNPR, it was as good a location as any and at least would allow them to sit down if nothing else.

"Ruby, I owe you... an apology." Seeing the sleepiness leave her partner's eyes as she uttered the words and Weiss mentally braced herself for the girls reaction...

"Not really Weiss, if anything I think I should be apologising to you..." What? The humble tone caught Weiss by surprise even as Ruby gave her best awkward smile before continuing.

"I know you wanted to be the team leader and that given my age I must seem very childish at times to you, and my lack of leadership training isn't really helping matters..." Weiss realised where this was going and found herself surprisingly upset with Ruby's attempted apology, she was the one in the wrong and apologising here!

"Ruby, that's not what I..." Weiss stopped as Ruby sent her an almost imperious look that somehow conveyed a command and a plea to let her finish in the same moment.

"But, given your desire to apologise I imagine that you are prepared to give me a chance to learn how to be a better team leader, or at least I hope that's the case. Regardless, I know that Yang and I can get a little... Unruly at times, and thanks to Jaune I realised that I can't just assume that what I do to work with and lead Yang will necessarily work in the same way for us. But regardless of our differences and the team dynamic, you are my partner for at least the next four years Weiss, and I really want to make this work in a way that is good for both of us..."

That was probably the single longest coherent string of sentences Weiss had heard from the scythe wielder in a conversation, and despite her attempts to remain impassive she couldn't stop the small smile from appearing on her face as she opened her arms for a tentative hug.

"I think we both have things we need to work on in regards to our friendship, though if you are serious about trying to improve your skills as a leader and academically I suppose I can help... I can't have my leader show me up by being a dunce can I?" Ruby's expression shifted the moment she heard Weiss mention friendship, the girl practically teleporting into the hug with a grin on her face that showed she was either ignoring or forgiving the dunce comment entirely.

The two talked for a while longer over two mugs of hot chocolate, she'd have to buy some for Jaune later to make up for using his supply now, before Ruby's tiredness caught up with her and the girl headed off to bed with a yawning wave. Weiss stayed to wash up, as she didn't want to be the first to leave a mess in case it set the standard, though she hadn't expected the voice talking to her as she turned to put the cups away after washing and drying them.

"That was a nice thing you did, even if Ruby almost stopped you from repairing the bridge from your end..." Whilst it was good the second object of her emotional turmoil seemed to have saved her the effort of tracking him down, Weiss wasn't sure she was ready for the potential upheaval this next conversation could cause.

"Jaune? What are you doing up? Is this about the book?" Best to get the niceties out of the way first, especially as it gave him a potential out of a longer conversation if he desired it.

Now if only she could stop feeling so guilty every moment his passive gaze rested upon her, then the evening as a whole would be considered a success...

 **A/N: So, as we progress I find myself needing to expand further on both the world of Remnant and Beacon itself, hence the 'class sets' which expand on the classes we have seen thus far and make sense in the very wide and varied roles that hunters seem to fill at the same time.**

 **The six first year class sets are as follows: Combat, Crafting, Support, Scouting, Leader and Forging. Each of these is made up of three or four sub-classes that are enclosed in this 'speciality' and I would love to have any suggestions beyond what I have hinted to in regards to class suggestions or even class sets for 2nd year students that I could have team CFVY hint to or provide information about.**

 **I think this adds to both the 'realism' of Beacon's studies, as well as giving a reason for Beacon to be considered the 'best' hunters academy in Remnant, not only are Beacon's students strong but they are also the most diverse and therefore most able to cater to the mission requests they get in.**

 **Which brings me onto my next point and a question for the more seasoned RWBY followers here, how do hunters get assigned when they graduate from the various academies? Is it a Naruto system where they get hired for various jobs like mercenaries? Are there hunters guilds? Or do they just act dependent on how well connected their team is/what their life plans are?**

 **Let me know if you know/have an interesting idea in how to approach this potential issue.**

 **Lastly, a call for a beta! Considering some of the rookie spelling errors I am making as I write this that I only catch after reading the published version, someone who could volunteer just to give it a once over before I do publish it would be much appreciated!**

 **Regards**

 **Defias**


	5. Combat class and differences of opinion

It was a humbling experience, Jaune decided as he rolled forward to avoid another swing of his opponents weapon, slashing out with his blade only for his opponent to shift slightly and avoid the swipe entirely. Out in the badlands he had been one of the best fighters around, capable of taking on an entire pack of Beowolves whilst most Badlanders would struggle with more than one or two, though that was as much to do with the fact he had Aura and could therefore tank much better than those around him as it was related to ability.

"Stand still and take it like a man Badlander!" The problem Jaune was encountering now with his new opponent was that he was being out muscled and out tanked, Cardin Winchester more than capable of weathering his strikes with his own Aura and every blow the taller boy had landed upon his shield felt like a cannon shot.

' _Shift out of roll, dodge to the right to avoid overhead swing, slam shield into exposed stomach to wind Cardin and then use sub par ability to respond to get in a couple of strikes...'_ Each and every movement that he made was according to the plan he had in his head, but unlike the Grimm Cardin wasn't simply letting him act and then responding, the mace wielder was changing up his movements and tactics every time Jaune seemed to be gaining an upper hand.

Being smart and tactical just wasn't enough, though Jaune knew this would have been much worse if it had been someone like Yang up against him. Whilst he liked the blonde, he had seen the destruction she was all too willing to cause during initiation, and there was no way he would willingly put himself on the other end of that. Even as he dodged the swing Cardin used his own body as a weapon to follow up, slamming into Jaune and sending him to the ground with a thud.

"That's enough Mr Winchester, Mr Arc's aura has fallen into the red and therefore he is considered to have lost this exhibition match." It seemed like the boy wanted to carry on regardless for a moment, before dropping his mace back to his shoulder and walking off with a dismissive snort in Jaune's direction.

"Lying in the dirt suits you animal lover..." Jaune's eyes narrowed at the comment but Cardin was already striding back to his seat by the time he was back on his feet.

Luckily he was sat on the other side of the chamber from the boy, so he shrugged the comment off and instead focussed on the greetings he got as he returned to his seat.

"Good try Jaune-kun!"

"You'll get him next time Vomit Boy!"

"Your stance was terrible..." The last comment caught not just him off guard but the others as well given it's source, Pyrrha reddening as she realised everyone was looking at her.

"Sorry, did I say that out loud?" Despite the fact that Jaune could tell she was praying for him to say no he nodded, but he smiled and gestured his hand before Pyrrha could get even more embarrassed.

"It's fine Pyrrha, I just lost a match so I can't expect a glowing report card, though I don't get what you mean about my stance." Before the redhead could reply an authoritative cough reminded Jaune that he was still in class and that Goodwitch was waiting on him before they could continue.

Sliding into his seat, Jaune gave an apologetic look to the teacher who seemed willing to forgive him this time, instead gesturing her wand around imperiously.

"As you saw in that demonstration, you cannot fight humans the same way you fight your basic Grimm. Mr Arc clearly has a good tactical mind, but he was too rigid in his implementation of his attacks and unprepared to adapt when Mr Winchester changed his own strategy." Jaune couldn't help but let the frown return, even as Amber's hand on his shoulder provided some small comfort, in contrast to the smug grin Cardin had on his face.

"Before you start letting your ego inflate itself beyond it usual level Mr Winchester, I would point out that Mr Arc nearly did force you into a ring out loss twice, despite your advantages physically, the victory here was as much due to luck as it is strength of arms..." That knocked the smug look right off Cardin's face, though Jaune managed to resist allowing a smile of his own appear in case that just made matters worse.

"Now, the next pairing will be..." As Goodwitch carried on the sparring between two other people Jaune didn't know his scroll buzzed, indicating he had received a message on it, and given Pyrrha's apologetic smile sent in his direction as she leant back in her chair it was pretty obvious who it was from.

 **Sorry about what I said about your form Jaune, it just that I have trained most of my life to find weaknesses in people's stances and yours is so... Instinctual many of my former tutors would cry if I let it go unfixed.**

Jaune smiled, if it had been anyone else other than the kindly champion his combat style would probably have been described with enough expletives to make Yang blush, but Pyrrha was kind to the point that Jaune was worried it would eventually come back to bite her.

 _ **Thanks Pyrrha, no problem I promise, my style is pretty much how you just described it, not many training schools around in the badlands you know...**_

His comment made the girl blush, but she nodded in understanding before the two turned their attention back to the matches, her face thoughtful in a way that sent shivers down Jaune's spine... Well it was either that or the way Nora was hefting Magnhild and cackling as her name was called.

Having to duck his head as she leapt over her seat and him, nearly giving him a concussion with the hilt of said hammer as she did so, Jaune decided it was definitely Nora he was worried about...

!"£$%^&*()_+

Sitting back from her letter to friends at Signal, Ruby noticed that once again her partner was distracted from her work and instead typing rapidly into her scroll.

"Whatcha doing Weiss? Weiss?" As the white haired heiress ignored/didn't hear her, Ruby decided enough was enough, swivelling her chair in Weiss' direction before kicking off with her feet and catapulting across their dorm.

"Ah! Watch what you're doing dunce!" Despite the hostility in Weiss' tone Ruby grinned in triumph at getting a response, and managed to liberate the girl's scroll from her before Weiss realised what she was doing.

"What do you think you are doing! Give that back Ruby!" Speeding away from her now incensed team mate Ruby took refuge on the other side of the room whilst she took a quick look at what had Weiss so distracted.

"White Fang attack reports, SDC shipment logs and... Company asset analysis?" Even as Ruby tried to work out what Weiss was hoping to work out with this information, she couldn't help but be impressed at the technological advances hidden in this one small device.

Compared to her own scroll, Weiss' scroll was unfoldable into two distinct forms, lighter than the standard model by a considerable margin and made from a material that gave it an almost noble silver gleam. If that wasn't enough, given the number of operations it seemed to be running at the same time whilst extracting information from what she assumed was the Schnee private network, this baby probably had four or five times the operating power as well.

"That's none of your business... Now give it back, please?" Despite the almost begging demeanour from her partner, Ruby managed to hold firm and shake her head.

"Not until you tell me what this is about Weiss, you have spent pretty much all your time on this for the last three days, a couple of times I've even found you not paying attention in class!" Which given the girl's almost OCD personality had definitely been odd enough to warrant this intervention in Ruby's opinion, though she should probably have waited until the other two got back from their classes so she had some back up.

"It's not that..." Weiss seemed to realise that Ruby had the upper hand with her speed, and slumped onto her bed in a distinctly un-heiress like manner.

"Okay, so I may be a little distracted, but I just can't work out what the Schnee name has to do with Jaune being so...Different!" The mention of the somewhat dorky but still cool blonde had Ruby smile as his cheery face appeared in her mind, before she truly caught what Weiss had said and stopped to stare at the heiress.

"This is about Jaune? I thought you were still angry about him throwing you that Grimm book in our first class, though given what you've said about it I don't see why you're mad, it sounded quite useful..." Ruby wanted to point out that it sounded like Weiss wanted Jaune to treat her normally again, but having seen the results of Yang's teasing on the subject she knew that might be enough to get the girl to stop the heart to heart, probably using her rapier to try and get the scroll back with force.

"It's not that, it's... Difficult to explain..." Deciding that Weiss had indeed given up on pretenses and she was probably safe, Ruby shifted back to her chair and shuffled over to their bed with more than a little excitement, this was her first girly talk since getting here that didn't involve her sister!

"Well we've got at least half an hour before the others get back, and perhaps talking about it will help? If Jaune is being mean to you then as team leader..." Ruby wasn't stupid, she knew Jaune had been nothing of the sort since Weiss had told him her name, but it provoked the reaction she wanted to see from the usually frosty heiress.

"No! You can't go and talk to him about this, not until I work out why he is so wary of me and my last name. Even when he came to get his damned book back he dodged around my attempts to make conversation before politely excusing himself before I got the chance to ask him... why?" The almost defeated tone in Weiss' voice made Ruby's smile at the chance to be a teenage girl fade, though before she got a chance to try and console her Weiss propped her head in her hands and continued.

"I've checked everything about him, no history of Faunus in the family so it can't be due to the White Fang or anything like that. He comes from a town on the far side of Vale, where no company or subsidiary of the SDC has ever done anything more than drop off some dust, so the only explanation is that something happened whenever he was in the badlands he talked about... But other than a few newspaper articles about the attack on Arcadia and Jaune's eventual return there is nothing, no interviews and nothing in the SDC manifests that suggest we Schnee have gone anywhere near the Vale badlands other than by air trade route..."

This was probably the most Weiss had talked to her in the entire time they had been in Beacon, initiation, and it was all Ruby could do to stop her awkwardness from rearing it's head and ruining everything for both of them.

"Are you sure it's not just Jaune reacting to how famous you are? Wait, forget I said that, he is partnered with Pyrrha... Why don't we ask Rine or Amber and see if they know anything that might help?" Her first attempt to try and offer a solution was met with an imperious glare, which was why Ruby had been quick to backtrack and come up with something else to offer the girl.

"I had thought of that..." To Ruby's surprise her hasty attempt to salvage herself seemed to have worked, Weiss looking off thoughtfully towards the far wall for a moment before shaking her head.

"But Amber is almost as protective of Jaune as Yang is of you, so she will be very suspicious if I suddenly start asking around, and it will probably get back to Jaune. And Rine, it's not that I don't like her..." But she's a Faunus, the words went unsaid primarily because Ruby knew of Weiss' dislike of Remnant's second humanoid race, it was one of the things they had discussed during their bonding session in the kitchen actually.

Contrary to popular belief, there were quite a few Schnee family members outside the direct family line, or at least there _had_ been before the white fang went all paramilitary on the world. While Weiss hadn't talked about it directly, Ruby knew from her own brief research that more than a dozen Schnee members had been killed or kidnapped by the White Fang, including two efforts on Weiss herself when she was younger which had resulted in the death of three of her staff and two bodyguards.

"You do realise that not every Faunus is in the White Fang right? Just like every human isn't a member of the Black Blades..." Weiss sent her a blank look at the second name and Ruby remembered it wasn't a worldwide thing like the White Fang were.

"The Black Blades are an illegal human organisation that started up in Vale after the Faunus Revolution, with the idea that humanity had gone soft on the Faunus and the humans should band together and drive the Faunus back to Menagerie. It had mostly died out until the resurgence of the White Fang, or that is what Uncle Qrow told me anyway..." Weiss seemed surprised at the new information before dropping her head onto the bedspread.

"Sounds like the sort of group my father would approve of unfortunately. But you are right, I just don't know how to get across that I am not like my father to the Faunus here, I know that most of them think I am just as bad as he is by how they look at me..." The way she spoke of her father worried Ruby, especially as she knew that Weiss' mother had died when Weiss was very young, the idea of her dad being anything like Weiss' sounded like was terrifying...

"Well, whilst we think on that, how about we go and get some hot chocolate? Then we can sit down and you can explain to me how to do trajectories properly again... And maybe some cookies, cookies would be good..." Whilst most would have missed it, Ruby caught the small smile that made it's way onto Weiss' face before the heiress snorted dismissively and moved back to a sitting position on the bed.

"Those cookies will be the death of you one day, but I suppose a beverage wouldn't be too terrible an idea..." And with that the old Weiss was back, as much as Ruby knew Yang would bemoan the fact later it was something the other three members of team RWBY had missed in their own way.

She just had to make sure never to tell Weiss that or they would never hear the end of it...

!"£$%^&*()_+

It had been clear to Amber from the first day that her team had not been one Beacon had been prepared for, the full sized dorm with four beds, four wardrobes and other pieces of furniture being a very obvious hint. Not that she minded the abundance of space of course, it was in fact something that would work to her advantage when her requests from home arrived, especially given Rine had half a dozen sets of clothes to her name at best.

"So there we were in the middle of the night..." Even as Rine was fully focussed on what Nora was shouting about Amber was concentrating on her food so that she could then join in the discussion properly afterwards without worrying about etiquette issues.

The two of them had latched onto Jaune's team like limpets, both out of familiarity and because of Ozpin's plan for their team in general, JNPR's link with RWBY being another pleasant and useful part of the plan. From what Rine explained, basic as it was either due to her own lack of attentiveness or the headmaster being deliberately vague, Ozpin wanted to get each first year team to have completed one B-class Grimm hunting mission by the start of the Vytal festival. The benefits of such potential experience made obvious sense to Amber, but given the limited number of huntsmen accepting the smaller class jobs he couldn't afford to start doubling the teams up or assigning two staff to each group, as was required for a first year group doing such a level mission.

So instead the two of them, both being older than the current first years and having considerable experience out in the field, were to act as the second team and partner with each team for these missions once the missions started being given out at the end of the first semester. It wasn't necessarily something that Amber would have volunteered for, but she could see both the strategic use and the benefit to her of such teams if hers proved a success.

"Let go of me!" Not that she would be as willing to work with some teams as she was others, as she looked up from her lunch to see Cardin grabbing a Rabbit Faunus' ears and yanking on them painfully, the rest of team CRDL laughing along in the sort of minion like way that Amber despised.

Amber was already moving to her feet as the bullying continued, and as she heard an animalistic growl from next to her she knew she wasn't the only one to find this nature abhorrent, Rine looking like she wanted to claw Cardin's face off with her bare hands. But even as they stepped to go round the table Amber saw a flash of white that showed they were too slow to be the first to intercede.

"Let her go now!" Despite her sometimes bratty attitude, Amber found herself respecting the young Schnee heiress as she stood authoritatively in front of the much bigger Cardin, arms crossed in a distinctly unimpressed manner whilst her firm tone brooked no argument.

"Sorry, what?" It seemed to take Cardin a moment to realise who it was that was talking to him, the boy releasing the rabbit girl a moment later and turning to stand from his seat, all jovial expression gone from his face as he towered over the heiress.

"You, of all people, are going to try and defend these animals? Your family should be the first to stand with the Blades against this filth." If Weiss was intimidated by the boy's stature she didn't show it, though the fact the rest of Cardin's team had stood and looked distinctly unhappy with her intervention was more of a concern to Amber as she saw Rine indicate with her head that they should back the girl up.

"No, I wouldn't do that..." A dead silence seemed to fill the room as they heard Weiss' response, though before Cardin could react she raised a manicured finger and pressed it firmly onto his chest plate.

"That would imply that I only wanted to make myself look good by being the 'white knight' and try and trick the Faunus into assuming I am different from my last name. My issue is with you and your barbaric bullying, not because of who you are picking on but the fact that you think it is okay for you to act in such a moronic and insidious manner..." Cardin looked down at the point where she was pressing on his chest plate for a moment, probably trying to work out what Weiss had said given the range of vocabulary she seemed to be utilising, before his face turned into a snarl and he grabbed her finger and yanked it away painfully.

"Yeah, and what are you going to do about...Urgh!" His attempted threat/question was cut short as a fist buried itself into his lower chest plate, the blow's force being mitigated by his aura but not enough to stop the wind being forced straight from his lungs and leaving him winded.

"She won't do anything, as Princess here has a thing about stupid things like 'rules' and following them meaning she doesn't want detention for starting a fight outside of class..." Amber had been moving forward to assist Weiss, but it seemed the rest of the girl's team had beaten her there, Yang prizing Cardin's grip from Weiss' finger whilst Blake and Ruby stared down the rest of Cardin's team along with Nora and Jaune.

"But me, I _Cardin-y_ **('Can't deny' if you can't get that one)** that such silly things don't bother me in the slightest, especially if you even think about touching one of my team again... Let's just say it's my _Cardinal_ rule..." Even though Yang was still using her playful and friendly tone Amber could tell that it was scaring the shit out of Cardin, though the boy quickly recovered enough to wrench his hand from her grip and size himself up against the blonde brawler.

"Cardin, you are outnumbered and already injured, my advice would be to stop here whilst you still have some pride left..." There went Jaune, always trying to be friendly even against a guy who had beaten him up and picked on his friends...

"Though, if you would prefer I can always let Nora break your legs, though knowing her she won't just stop there..." Or not as the case maybe, Amber surprised at the serious tone in her younger brother's voice as Nora started jumping on the spot in excitement.

"Gonna break your legs, then twist your arms, stomp your face till it's flat, tra la la la..." The sing song voice managed to surpass Yang's in the terror it managed to generate, and Amber wasn't even the one at risk of Nora Smash as they politely termed the girl's penchant to violence.

"There will be no such activities Ms Valkyrie!" Luckily, or unluckily in Amber's case as she wanted to see Cardin get his face stomped in, Goodwitch's arrival had the mounting tension collapse in an instant.

Seeing that she and Rine were not stood directly with the group that Goodwitch was now glaring at, Amber saw the opportunity to slip away without being drawn into the inevitable punishments to follow. Some would see it as a little cowardly, but Amber preferred to think of it as simple tactical sense, besides she had her own revenge to inflict on Cardin for what he had said and did whilst trying to justify it as anything other than racism...

"Ms Arc, where do you think you are going?" Pausing mid-step and cursing her bad luck, Amber then plastered her best smile on her face before turning back to the Professor.

"Apologies Professor Goodwitch, but there are some armour plates I left in the forge and I remembered I need to take them out before they melt..." Which was actually true, though it would be at least another 30 minutes before that became anything near the point of becoming a problem.

Despite the dismayed and betrayed looks on the others faces Goodwitch seemed to buy it, the blonde haired telekinetic turning back to unleash her displeasure on the rest of them as Amber breathed a sigh of relief at having escaped, for the moment at least. Leaving the now crowded great hall, Amber made her way to the stairs that lead down into the lower levels of the academy, where the reinforced areas for forging, dust enhancement and aura classes were based.

' _Might as well carry on with the project, not as if the rest of them are going to be happy to see me for the next few hours...'_ Stepping through into the small forge that each first year Forging class student got for personal use, Amber sighed quietly as the door closed behind her, reaching up with her real hand to start the sequence of unclipping her mechanical arm.

Given that students at Signal crafted their own weapons before graduation, the forging class set was therefore only a class utilised by those who either wanted to enhance their weapons and armour further, through the use of dust enhancement or the advanced forging knowledge held by the Beacon Forgemaster Vaulen. Or, she thought as the last seal came loose with a hiss and allowing her mechanical arm to drop into the waiting stand she had for it, like her they had prior injuries or enhancements that they needed to maintain and understand for themselves.

Looking over to where three other arms were waiting, though none of them were anywhere near the quality of the one she had from Atlas they were all her own creations and that carried a quality of their own. Selecting the one she used for forging, a simple device with a hammer for a hand, she decided that the work she was doing on unlocking the secrets of her Atlassian arm could wait for a little while longer.

' _After all, it's Jaune's birthday in 3 weeks, wouldn't want to give him a substandard present as his favourite sister...'_ Amber deliberately ignored the little voice in the back of her mind, the one that had grown insistently louder since the return of her now battle scarred and rugged sibling, which whispered that being his sister had nothing to do with her desire to give him the present she had in mind...

!"£$%^&*()_+

"I have gotten into Beacon as intended, though you have yet to tell me what is so important that requires us risking communication under Ozpin's nose." There was barely a pause before text appeared on the screen in front of the cloaked figure.

 **You were never one for patience, though that is one of the reasons you passed the trials I suppose... Our source in the White Fang suggest there is an infiltrator who has gained access into Beacon alongside you from their ranks, though the reason for such a bold move is unclear even to us.**

"Interesting, but there are six Faunus in the new intake, so the chances of finding one amongst them doing something suspicious without seeming suspicious myself, given the views of certain members of the year many of them aren't exactly... Welcoming to humans... And that is assuming that the infiltrator isn't hiding their Faunus heritage."

 **Given the resurgence of the White Fang in Vale, it is not surprising that the Black Blades are on everyone's lips once more, lines of the new Faunus War are being drawn and we need to be prepared. Keep your eyes open and report anything suspicious through the normal channels, we cannot afford to be caught on the back foot once more.**

A sigh and the rolling of eyes came from the cloaked figure, before they closed the connection with an irritable wave of a hand.

"It's not like I was planning on doing anything else..."

 **A/N: Mwhahaha! You weren't expecting that! Or at least I hope you weren't, if you were then you know how my mind works better than I do and that is really disconcerting.**

 **So Jaune lost to Cardin... Probably not a big surprise given my earlier comments and A/N's, but Jaune currently fights as if following a script in his head, which given the predictability of lesser Grimm is not particularly surprising if you do assume they follow their instincts.**

 **But it is a major problem when fighting people of anywhere near your level of skill, especially when they are better trained and more experienced than you are. Most people dismiss Cardin as a one line bully put in solely for comedic value, but he is still at Beacon and if you remove canon Jaune as an outlier we are talking the top 1-3% of fighters their age is the minimum to be able to attend.**

 **I am not saying he would be able to out fight say Pyrrha, but depending on the circumstances I can see a realistic Cardin at least drawing with Ruby or Weiss simply because he is built as a tank and both of them can't really take a hit. It also makes the rivalry between CRDL and RWBY/JNPR more interesting if his team are actually capable combatants.**

 **Weiss. Given her earlier confrontations with Jaune and then his sudden politeness, her frustration and not understanding 'the problem' is fast causing her to obsess more than a little bit, which is not going to be helped by Yang's teasing. But the talk with Ruby as well as her determination to try and separate herself from the Schnee family image will have consequences that go beyond merely standing up for Velvet to Cardin...**

 **Lastly, the Black Blades are my own OC group, primarily on the logic that if the humans 'lost' the Faunus war, the most extreme members of the humans wouldn't merely go quietly into the night. More will be expanded upon as we go. But for now they, and/or the mysterious duo at the end of the chapter, will provide another front for what is going on in Vale.**

 **Cinder isn't the only one capable of forming a plot or two after all...**


	6. A Faunus Point Of View

Velvet was not the most sociable of people, something that her partner Yatsu had kindly put down to her quiet nature, as opposed to her lack of confidence or painful memories of being isolated or attacked as a Faunus which she knew were the actual reasons.

Until she had come to Beacon after achieving a scholarship through Signal Velvet hadn't had many friends, even amongst the other Faunus that attended the school, so her team had been an absolute blessing that had accepted her for who she was and hadn't tried to force her to change. Well, Coco had tried to make her wear more fashionable clothing and take her on shopping sprees but that was more just who the girl was, she had even tried to do it with the boys so it wasn't as if Velvet was alone on that front.

But it didn't take much to be reminded that just because she had a great team there were those at Beacon who despised her based on her heritage. It was the reason she was still in the first year history class actually, she'd been in Vale the day before the last exam and had been attacked, her passive nature meaning that by the time she started to fight back it was too late and she ended up missing the exam and staying in the infirmary for a week.

Thankfully Professor Ozpin had been more than understanding and allowed her to continue onto the second year courses with the rest of her team, all she had to do was re-sit the first year history exam at the end of the year and get a pass. Which should be easy enough given she was a straight A student in the rest of her classes, though a little catch up studying wouldn't be remiss...

"Excuse me..." Looking up from her history textbook that she had been casually paging through whilst composing her thoughts, Velvet was surprised to find herself faced with one of the first years that had helped her with that bully in the canteen, the tall blonde boy who seemed to be in charge of one of the two teams that had confronted the bully from what she had seen before being a coward and fled.

"O-oh, hi there..." Mentally she despaired, the guy stands up to a bully with his friends for her, gaining the ire of Goodwitch and several detentions between them for it, and she manages make it sound like she isn't happy to see him!

"Do you mind if I sit at this table with you? Most the others are full." Velvet managed to stop herself from looking round to validate his statement, doing so would imply that she didn't believe him or wanted to try and disprove his claim, instead shifting a couple of her textbooks to give him the space needed to set his own work down.

"Of course..." Not entirely sure with what she was meant to say next, Velvet was relieved when the guy didn't seem to mind her failure to continue their brief conversation, instead opening his history textbook to the section on the siege of Fort Castle.

Mentally kicking herself for missing the chance to thank him for his earlier efforts, Velvet tried to turn back to her own work, perhaps when she finished she could use the opportunity to speak with him once more. As she put the last notes to her initial argument regarding the strategies on both sides, Velvet looked up only to find the boy looking at a... dictionary?

The frown on his face made her wonder what he was looking up, only for him to then scribble something down and then start flicking through the dictionary again a moment later. It was probably not the polite thing to do, but Velvet was too intrigued to resist taking a peek, doing her best to hide it as a closer look at one of the textbooks she had shifted out of the way for him.

"Sorry, do you want me to shift my stuff round so you have some more space?" It was sweet, as well as almost entirely unknown territory for Velvet, she had never had someone be so... nice to her outside her team, certainly not a non-affiliated human.

"N-no, no need, I have more books than I really need for this essay..." Despite the boy's niceness Velvet could tell he was nervous about something, and a quick look at his essay meant she could guess why, her keen eyes catching several grammatical and spelling errors even with him checking the dictionary so often.

"More than me, though why Oobleck couldn't just set us reading work like Port did, my arm is already sore from writing and I haven't even finished the first page..." Velvet was torn, the boy obviously wasn't a strong writer, especially given the overly theatrical manner in which he shook his writing hand to relieve his cramps, but her offering to help could upset him given how nervous he seemed whilst doing his work.

"Oobleck is one who likes to check his student's understandings with essays and theoretical strategies, whilst Port is more of a 'I'm here to teach, if you don't want to learn that is not my problem.'" The boy laughed at her impression of Professor Port, though what possessed her to do something so embarrassing was beyond her as she stammered and blushed as she realised what she had done.

"That sounds so much like him... You're quite good at impressions." The boy paused, and then blushed slightly at something before holding his hand out.

"I just realised I never introduced myself after you kindly let me sit here, I'm Jaune..." Velvet gave what she hoped was her most confident smile and took his hand tentatively to shake it, if she hadn't heard him threaten to allow his team mate to break the bully's legs Velvet would have been a little more relaxed at the guy's easy going smile, the steel in his gaze making her wonder if she really wanted to ask the next question.

"V-velvet, I never got the chance to thank you and Ms Schnee for the help your team's gave me the other day, so... Thanks. Though, and please don't take this the wrong way, I couldn't help but notice you are struggling with some of the spelling in your essay..." The smile dropped and Velvet winced and prepared for the angry outburst to come, the guy was just being nice and now he thinks...

"You're right, damn I was kinda hoping no one would notice..." And the smile was back, Jaune reaching up and scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "I kinda missed Signal, or any real structured learning at all over the last couple of years... Is it that obvious?" There was a definite story there, Beacon usually only accepted the top graduates from Signal, which in turn was the cream of the crop in terms of hunter prep schools in Vale, so for someone to get in without any education...

"Yes? Sorry, I honestly thought you were going to shout at me when I asked, I know people don't like me pointing out mistakes..." It was one of her first attempts to make friends at Signal, but it rapidly meant that people just used her for homework and then treated her no differently outside of the library.

"Why would I? As far as I'm concerned I thought I had got it all right this time, so if anything you are saving me making a fool of myself when I hand it in, if you can see mistakes without trying I don't want to know what Oobleck would think. Would you mind just telling me the most obvious mistakes? I don't want to waste too much of your time..." Velvet's heart jumped as Jaune made the leap of offering her help for her, and in a way that made it clear he wasn't demanding or expecting it in anyway.

"Of course, and I'm done with the first section so a break from writing will do me some good as well. Now, how about we start with some basic grammatical rules and then you might be able to spot some errors yourself..." And thus Velvet fell into a much loved but rarely practiced hobby of hers, tutoring and teaching Jaune many of the little mnemonics and memory joggers she used herself, though of course she had to teach him how to spell mnemonics first...

It was... Nice, Jaune's eagerness to learn mixed with the fact that several of the ideas he had come up with about how to swing the battle more in favour to either side meant that she only realised the time when an amused cough roused the two of them from researching whether the wind direction and number of supplies on the final day of the siege was conducive to the humans using smoke or tear gas to negate the Faunus' naturally superior eyesight.

"Seems like someone's got a new study partner..." Coco was leaning against a nearby bookshelf in her usual confident manner, staring down at the two of them over the top of her glasses whilst fiddling with her...

"Coco... Please don't tell me you just took a picture..." Mortified was probably the closest to accurately describing Velvet's mood as she realised that she was currently sat alongside Jaune so that they could both gesture to the same map, and then she had leaned over to point something out that she had read in one of her books.

"Of course not, I was just messaging Yatsu and Fox so that they knew that I had found you. Though now that you mention it..." Even before Coco had started raising her scroll again Velvet had shifted back to a normal seating position next to Jaune, who merely looked a little confused.

"Sorry, I don't think we've met..." Though he was smiling, Velvet could see it was a little strained and realised that out of context what Coco had said could be taken quite badly, which is how Jaune seemed to have taken it given how he had shifted slightly closer to her in case Coco did try something.

"Jaune, it's okay, this is my team leader Coco Adel. She's nothing like that other boy..." If anything Coco's smile widened as she seemed to note Jaune's protectiveness as well, before it dropped and she turned her gaze to Velvet with all signs of humour gone from her face.

"Who is this other boy that has Jaune acting so protective of you Velvet? If someone is being a racist pig again..." Damn, Velvet didn't want her team fighting her battles for her, which is why she hadn't told them about the incident in the canteen.

But judging by the look on Coco's face she wasn't getting away with it this time...

[]{}#%^*+=

*Thud*

The sound of a Zweihandler, bigger than she was, burying itself in the table team Cardinal were currently sitting at was easily loud enough to draw the attention of all those currently in the dining hall. Even before the impact though, Blake's keen eyes had caught its movement the moment it had left the hulking boy's hands from almost 20 feet away.

"What, what the fuck!?" Dove's shout was cut off by the arrival of said giant, and the whirring sound that was revealed moments later to be coming from the fashionably dressed beret wearing girl walking up behind him, holding what appeared to be a...minigun?

"Well, when they said they were going to have words, I didn't think they were going to go this far..." The murmur from Jaune was easily picked up but Blake ignored it as Cardin jumped out of his seat.

"Who do you think..." Cardin barely had time to raise his hands in a block before the giant sword wielder uncorked a right handed blow that sent the boy skidding back along the floor.

"You have a problem with my partner, you have a problem with me..." Blake honestly thought that she wouldn't see the day someone could so easily outmuscle and intimidate Cardin given his size, but even as Cardin recovered with a right hook, the blow slammed into the larger boy's torso and Cardin cried out in pain as the giant didn't even so much as budge.

"We thought we'd made this clear last year, but it seems we have some feisty firsties this year." The girl was speaking now, her weapon hefted at the three other members of team Cardinal who wisely didn't try and join the obviously one sided fight.

"We will not tolerate bigots like these four, picking on Faunus just because you think that being human somehow makes you superior. Any Faunus here probably deserves to be here more than you do, and if you have a problem with that?" The giant reached over and grabbed his sword, picking up both the sword _and the table_ with it with one hand, frowning for a moment and then slamming his free hand into the table and wrenching his blade free.

"You will end up worse than that table..." Having said what she seemed to think needed to be said, the girl turned away and started walking back towards the table that seemed to be her team's, only for the sound of clapping from Blake's left started the murmuring into a clamour of shouts and cheers of support or condemnation depending on the source.

Catching sight of the rabbit Faunus from the incident a couple of days before things started to make sense in Blake's head, though why Jaune had seemed to know the pair of them and what they had planned she couldn't yet work out.

"As much as I love to see Cardin getting shown he's not the biggest kid on the block, anyone know what that was about? Just so that I can say we were absolutely not involved before Goodwitch hands out anymore detentions our way..." Her partner's comment, and Jaune's lack of immediate response to clarify, showed that he was unwilling to expand on his seeming relationship with the team for the moment.

"They are members of bunny's team, obviously they wanted the chance to break Cardin's legs before I get the chance, though Goodwitch would then probably have banned me from pancakes..." This input came from Nora in her usual cheery and almost distracted manner, the delivery method managing to make everyone miss the fact the girl had been the one to make the connection, everyone bar Blake that is.

"Huh, well from the sounds of it things aren't as peachy as Ozpin leads everyone to believe, and I have no doubt Cardin will target us if he is planning retaliation, even I wouldn't want to take man mountain there on even with Ember Cecilia..." Despite her seemingly mature words Blake could already see the desire for said fight building in her partner's body language, if the boy wasn't a second year Blake would have had a sure bet on who the first challenge of the year would be aimed at.

"Forget him, did you see it? It was beautiful, so big and powerful only turn into a handbag! Do you think she would take offence if I asked to play with it?" Like her sister Ruby was in obvious awe, though given the way the girl was being forcibly held back by Weiss she obviously didn't have the same restraint.

"So their whole team looks like they are going on a mission and they issue a threat like that just before they leave? Seems like they are daring someone to prepare something or act out whilst they are away..." Her contribution probably wasn't strictly necessary, and normally Blake would have been more than ready to merely observe rather than talk in front of everyone, but she could see the thunderous expression on Cardin's face as he retook his seat still nursing his right hand.

"And given how pig headed Cardin can be that means display is just going to piss him off rather than actually teach him a lesson..." Weiss didn't look particularly concerned, but from what Blake knew of the Schnee family the heiress was probably the most experienced with dealing with this kind of threat from the white fang, a bunch of students were no real comparison.

"Well, as long as we stay alert I don't think there will be any problems, Cardin isn't going to pick a fight in front of everyone again after what Goodwitch said last time, so he will probably try and get his team to humiliate us in class..." Or try and catch someone alone and outnumbered, but that was probably a step too far for CRDL at this stage, so Blake didn't try and add to Amber's statement as the girl finished off one of the flapjack pieces that her partner seemed to provide her with alarming regularity.

Besides, it would be fairly easy for Ozpin to work out what had happened in a case like that, and assaulting another student in such a manner would at least get him suspended if not dismissed entirely. Catching Cardin throw a mutinous glance in their direction though, Blake couldn't help but feel uneasy even as she turned back to her tuna pasta bake. Just because it didn't rationally make sense didn't mean that Cardin would be thinking that way right now...

!"£$%^&*()_+

 _Hi Mum,_

 _It's been a while since I have written, sorry about that...But I'm at Beacon now! It's a bit of a long story, but you always said you wanted me to aim high so here I am. Okay, that sounded really lame but this is the sixth time I've tried to write this blasted thing and I have not come up with anything better..._

 _Still, enough about that, Jaune-kun is here at Beacon too! I didn't get to be on his team directly, but Amber-chan and I are a 'support' team that will integrate with the other teams, so that means that me and Jaune-kun still get to hang out all the time._

 _You remember Amber-chan from my other letters right? She's the cool if slightly overprotective one of Jaune's older sisters, the one with robot hand... She still not entirely forgiven me for running away almost two years ago, but she is trying to understand why and that's better than nothing..._

 _Oh right, I never told you about that little tit bit..._

Rine sat back in the remarkably comfortable armchair, which she had managed to requisition when Ozpin had given them the go ahead to renovate their room, looking down at her mostly finished letter with the resignation of someone who wasn't happy with what was in front of them but knew it was the best they were going to get.

"Damn, I knew there was a reason I stopped writing these things in the first place, but if I don't Kaa-san will be so mad when I see her again..." Deciding she could try and finish the damn thing later, Rine stretched her arms and looked around for what to do next. Growing up in the wastelands meant that she was almost subconsciously programmed to always be doing something, the harsh conditions and Grimm meant that laziness was the same as a death warrant for both you and the people you lived with.

It was a habit that was hard to break, and one that Rine wasn't entirely sure she wanted to end, even with life in the Kingdoms allowing her the opportunity to do so if she wished. Amber was out, no doubt working on her present for Jaune again, though Rine did wonder how long such an endeavour actually took, knowing Amber she had probably gone overboard with the support equipment pieces or gotten distracted on another project.

Whilst Rine couldn't really justify her annoyance at the older girl, it did make her attempts to patch up her relationship with the girl that much harder if Amber was never around to talk to. Sure she was the one who ran away... Regardless, if Amber was going to stay cooped up in her forge, Rine knew that she should probably check in on her before coming up with something else to distract her for the evening.

Jumping up and off the chair, Rine slipped her feet into her combat sandals before grabbing her uniform top and putting that over the Kevlar body armour she always had on, unless she was changing from one set of armour to another or in the shower. She was surprised Jaune didn't keep the same habit, but it was probably less ingrained in him than it was in her, and his semblance probably helped on that point as well.

Buttoning up the front of the jacket, Rine took a second look at her appearance to make sure she was at least presentable, eyes lingering on the scar that started at the base of her left jaw line and continued down to disappear into the hem of her jacket for a moment, before a toss of her short cut hair mirrored her turn away to the door.

"Remember what Kaa-San always said, learn from the past not live in it..." Even after being here a week and a half Rine still found the mingling tumult of students to be off putting, too many bodies hiding a potential threat, so she stuck to the edges of the corridors and did her best to avoid being noticed as she traversed down to the forge area.

Being small had it's advantages at times like this, slipping through the gaps in the mingling students with flair if not practiced skill, she was much more used to open terrain or wall fighting instead of crowds after all. Though her lack of height did come with disadvantages at times, not that she would ever admit that in case it got back to Jaune...

" _Head into the village, get the others to the trees or the rooftops, get as high as you can!" Jaune's cry surprised her even as he slashed another minor Beowolf down that had just raised its ugly head over the ramparts, the teenage human obviously directing it at her given the deer Faunus had been dragged over the wall of their outpost point several minutes beforehand._

" _What? Why?" Her lessons with Kaa-san had always taught her that staying on the ground was better than climbing out of the Grimm's reach, as the Grimm could always just starve you out of the tree tops into a ground fight, a more expansive questioning of his order cut off as she ducked the lunge of a small cat sized Grimm known as a Kneazle and cut it in half with a swing of her arm blades._

" _Just do it, trust me!" The boy was asking a lot, given they had known each other for only a couple of days, but he had tried to save her life when they met even if she hadn't really been in danger, so it wasn't as if she had to worry about him_ _ **trying**_ _to get her killed deliberately._

" _Come on then, you can't hold the wall by yourself!" Which was definitely true given they hadn't truly been able to do that between them, the low part of the wall they were manning was deliberately easier to climb up to them the rest of the wall was meant to be manned by at least twice their number, and the Grimm were already slipping by them into the hamlet itself._

 _Trusting that the boy would follow, because if he didn't she honestly couldn't risk staying to try and save him from Kaa-san would refer to as 'useless heroics', Rine took a running jump before latching onto the zip line that served as a rapid method of withdrawing into the main body of the hamlet for occasions like this with the belt she had drawn from her waist. Skimming down the line she felt it jerk a moment later, causing her to sigh in relief that the boy had followed._

" _Behind you!" Jaune's voice came just before another jerking shudder made her look back, and her face whitened in horror as she realised that a beowolf had leapt after her and was sliding down after her with remarkable adaptability, using it's wrist pads in place of a man made zipline rope._

 _It wasn't catching her despite it's much heavier weight because of this, but it's beady eyes were fixed on her and it was clear that it would fall upon her the moment she dropped off the zipline. Given the size of the hamlet she only had a few seconds to make a decision, mentally preparing herself for the fight that was to come as best she could as she quickly eyed the ground beneath and in front of her for any kind of advantage she could use._

 _Seeing that she was nearly out of time Rine dropped the ten feet remaining to the ground, wincing as she did her best to absorb the impact correctly whilst preparing her blades, turning just in time to catch the Beowolf's glistening claws descending towards her face. Twin blades suddenly cut into it from both sides, one blade cutting into it's neck whilst the other bisected it at the waist._

" _Huh, ballsy move brat, if you didn't have Aura that jump would have broken something and then you really would be useless to us..." Kaa-san was here! Rine felt so much safer already, until Kaa-san turned to her and gestured back towards the main buildings._

" _Despite that, we could hear your yelling even over the fighting, and the brat has the right idea. Rine, get the others to climb as high as they can, we will keep the Grimm busy!" As much as being dismissed so easily hurt her feelings, Rine knew that as the one without aura she would be the least useful in the fight._

 _The next few minutes were a blur, flashes of fire, claws and blood all that Rine could remember until the moment of cold and stark clarity as she fought her way backwards up a set of stairs up to a rooftop, that the other faunus were using as a point to get up into the large trees that protected the village from airborne Grimm. The reason she hadn't tried to fall back ahead of the Grimm was that she was protecting Misha, a pregnant bear faunus in her late twenties and her young boy of about 7 following behind her._

 _Slashing at a Gaunt, which was a dog like Grimm that had poisonous claws and bite, Rine heard a roar from below them before the entire structure shook as an Ursa Major charged into the stairs foundations. It tore at the woodwork, trying to climb up towards Misha who was doing her best to keep moving upwards, the wooden supports screeching in protest for a few moments before failing catastrophically, the whole stairway buckling and the part directly behind Rine falling away, Misha's boy falling and barely grasping a support beam to stop himself falling into the Ursa's maw._

 _The damage to the stairway had knocked the other Grimm off, but there wasn't time for Rine to catch her breath, the platform she was standing on and the boy was clinging to was shifting uncertainly and whilst the destroyed part of the platform had fallen on the Ursa major and stunned it for a moment that wouldn't be a saving grace for long. Reaching down as far as she could, Rine found that she couldn't quite reach the boy from where she was knelt, the boy looking up at her with complete terror covering his face._

 _As she went to lay on the walkway and cover the last few inches she needed to grab the boy though, the platform shifted dangerously once more as the Ursa forced it's way from underneath the fallen wood, the motion causing the boy to lose the last vestiges of a grip even as she threw herself as far down as she could in a futile attempt to grab one of his flailing arms..._

That attack had spelled the end of their outpost as well as any last ounce of innocence Rine had possessed as a child, Misha's devastated and traumatised face as Rine managed to drag her to the 'safe area' as clear in her mind now as the boy's pleading face had been before he had fallen to grimm below.

"Hello Rine!" The voice made Rien realise that she had managed to traverse the rest of the distance to the forge area, stood as she was in the doorway to Amber's personal forge, the elder Arc sibling smiling brightly even as she switched her arm from it's hammer attachment to her normal prosthetic.

Despite the injuries that Amber had suffered at the hands of the Grimm and the loss of her brother for two years, Rine couldn't help but feel a little jealous of the girl's bright and warm personality, the effort it took for her to act in a similar manner to the other members of Jaune's team was exhausting even for a short amount of time.

"Amber-chan, sorry for bothering you whilst you are working..." Whilst she had said that it was the sheer bedlam that was the Arc household that had caused her to leave, Rine got the feeling that certainly Jaune if not Amber had understood the real reason for her departure, the overwhelming feeling of being a burden on the already financially burdened family had quickly taken it's toll even if they had deliberately not said or done anything to indicate the extra difficulties she was causing them.

"Please Rine, don't worry about it, you are my partner so this forge is yours as well." Stepping inside and closing the door, Rine had to try and ignore the burning feeling in her cheeks that erupted at Amber's overly generous statement, it had to be an Arc mentality that was so generous and kind despite all the things she had done.

"Besides, I needed someone elses opinion on my present to Jaune, and I think you know him better than anyone else here..." Amber gestured off to her left as she said this, and as Rine's gaze followed the gesture her eyes fell upon something she knew she shouldn't really have been surprised to see, especially with all of the hints that Amber had been unintentionally been dropping over the last couple of weeks.

"Amber, is that?" The blonde nodded with the kind of smug glee that came with such a reveal, moving over to smack her metal arm into the main body of Jaune's present with a metallic thunk.

"Yes it is, it was about time Jaune got a proper suit of armour to replace that tattered old hauberk anyway..."

 **A/N: And I think we will leave it there for this chapter, primarily because I need to have a sit down and a think about where I want to go next.**

 **I hate all these stories where either the courses the guys do don't matter or Jaune suddenly somehow becomes one of the top in the class with minimal effort, so my Jaune will be struggling academically for sometime to come even with Velvet's help.**

 **Let me know what you think and whether you have any ideas guys!**


	7. Arcadia Falls

It was almost dawn, the sun just starting to peek over the horizon as Jaune brought up his shield to block another attempted stab at his chest from his new training partner, twisting his grip so that the blade scraped along the edge of his shield and behind him.

' _Slip inside her guard, use shield to defend against possible surprises and aim for her wrist to disarm...'_ Due to the adaptability of hunters versus the enemies he faced out in the Outlands, Jaune found his current fighting style to be inadequate, especially after being beaten twice in succession in Ms Goodwitch's combat class.

When he had raised the issue, primarily to see if anyone could suggest a trainer to go to or a book he could study, Jaune was surprised when not only Pyrrha but several of the others offered to help in quick succession. Which led to him stood with Crocea Mors at Weiss's neck and her dust rapier on the floor off to one side, the young heiress frowning for a moment before nodding her head.

"Well done, you were still somewhat slow to respond when I changed styles, but you can count this round as yours." Which still left him with a deficit of 8 to catch up on, and Weiss wasn't even using her dust abilities or her main sword style against him yet.

"Thanks Weiss, and sorry for making you get up so early for this..." Jaune was surprised when his apology merely made Weiss' frown deepen even further before she held her hand in her usual authoritative manner to stop him speaking.

"I am used to getting up at such times, my lessons as the Schnee heiress were long and by no means easy. However, I wish to call in my favour." The favour she mentioned was what Jaune had promised each of those that offered to help him train, as he wasn't prepared to let them go out of their way to help him for free, even if they were.

He had been a little worried when Weiss had volunteered, because she had only done so after he had made it clear he was going to owe them favours, and given her background she was also the most likely to make the most of the perceived advantage such a favour gave her.

"Oh, okay Weiss, what do you want my help with?" He was hoping it wasn't with schoolwork, even with Velvet's basic tutoring he was barely a passable academic right now, whilst Weiss was consistently in the top 5.

Her frown switched to that of a thoughtful expression, and for several moments she merely stared at him in silence, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to shift uncomfortably as he imagined what terrible things she was considering asking of him.

"Two things actually, but the second one can wait for the moment. For now, you can tell me why you are being so nice to me after you found out who I was..." For a moment Jaune was genuinely confused by what Weiss was asking, before his memories of the team placements shot to the forefront of his mind and the sense of unease returned.

"Are you sure this is what you wish to use your favour on?" Seeing her nod determinedly, Jaune knew that there was no getting out of this situation without telling her the truth, Weiss had an almost unnatural ability to sense when someone was lying to her.

"Well, it's because of what happened the night I went missing three years ago, I assume you have researched what happened?" If she hadn't she would be the only member of their two teams that hadn't, the reports primarily based on his sister's memories along with the few other scattered survivors who had been rescued the following morning in response to the distress signal that had been sent out.

"Of course, I wish to understand as much as I can about my future potential team mates, that and Ruby wouldn't stop pouting until I read it with her." That seemed in line with the young team leader's general approach to her problems, the mental image bringing a smile to his face, Weiss responding with a small smile of her own despite the irritation in her voice.

"What I don't understand though is why you were there in the first place? Whilst I know the town was named in honour of your great-grandfather, the reports don't give any indication as to what would make you and your sister go there." It still surprised Jaune how few people asked that question when they worked out who he was and what he had been through, many were too focussed on the horror and the desperate fighting that took place to realise the day had started out remarkably quiet in the Arc household.

"The villagers of Arcadia were very generous to my family after the war, several people willing us land or money in recognition of what my grandfather had done, and as part of the founding celebrations each year there was a collection passed round for us." His Father had always been slightly ashamed at the fact he had needed the money given to them to make ends meet more than once, such a large family was expensive to raise, especially so far from Vale.

"So it was something of a tradition, that an Arc would attend the day's celebrations and act as a guest of honour, something my mum or dad would do to try and make it clear how important the people of Arcadia were to us. Then, once my sisters were born and started to grow up another little tradition began, where Arc's would attend the celebrations in their 17th year before heading off into the wider Remnant to pursue their careers." It was still very much a fledgling tradition when Jaune had been dragged along by Amber, though with four of his sister's having attended the celebrations, it was one that had rapidly become a much enjoyed one amongst the Arc children.

"That explains why Amber was there, though why were you? And if your parents... Sorry, I don't mean to pry." It was strange, to see the prim and proper Weiss Schnee so clearly attempting to be emotionally considerate, though how much of that was Ruby's fast growing influence was yet to be seen.

"Don't worry about it, it's not as if this is deeply personal information. Mum and Dad were out on a mission, they usually avoided missions around the time of the festival but the amount of pay offered was too high for them to ignore. Looking back, it was highly suspicious the timing of the request, but at the time there was no reason to look into it. As to why I was there?" Jaune paused for a second, a wry smile appearing as he thought back to his younger self.

"Let's just say I was a bit useless around people in general and Amber thought attending the festival would be a good way to gain confidence..."

" _Are you sure it is okay for me to come Amber, mum and dad..." His attempt to try and reason with his sibling one last time was cut off by the urge to vomit as the aircraft they were in buffeted forwards through the slight turbulence, meaning he could only feel sorry for himself as Amber grinned in his direction._

" _Stop being so boring Jaune, think of this as your early Signal present from me! That and we need to get your new armour from Flax and make sure it fits, you can't keep wearing my old armour forever..." She was revealing things like this far too loudly for Jaune's liking, especially when all he could do was look pleadingly in her direction to get her to stop embarrassing her even more than his motion sickness was doing already._

" _Amber... Shut up!" The gritted tone merely made his hellion of an older sister chuckle as she waved to a girl around their age across the interior of the aircraft, the girl smiling and waving back before looking concernedly at Jaune._

" _Aww, someone already has an admirer..." Trying his best to not turn beet red, Jaune wondered whether vomiting on his sister to shut her up would be more or less embarrassing than letting her continue._

 _Though at this point, Jaune thought as the girl turned back to her mother and regained her original smile, he had to think that vomiting really couldn't make things much worse..._

Looking up as he left the memories of his younger years, Jaune was surprised to find Weiss doing her best not to giggle, hiding her mouth behind one of her perfectly manicured hands as she shook slightly from the effort of keeping her amusement non-verbal.

"What's so funny about that? My motion sickness isn't that much of a thing..." Weiss shook her head even as she lost her battle to keep the giggling contained, the lilting and pleasant smile bringing a smile to Jaune's face even as he tried to glare at her for finding his plight so amusing.

"N-No, hem, I mean that isn't what was so funny. Sorry Jaune, but I never expected the younger you to be so, so Ruby-esque!" He assumed the esque bit meant they were alike, which he guessed was probably quite accurate in regards to his younger self, his sisters had always referred to him as the 'baby dork' of the family.

"Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?" Not that he would ever bring that particular detail up if he could help it, Yang's use of 'vomit boy' was already bad enough without adding any more fuel to the fire.

"Sorry, so you were there to collect some new armour? I didn't know Arcadia had any particularly renowned craftsmen in its midst..." At this Jaune couldn't help but snort slightly, raising his hands a little apologetically at Weiss' imperious look.

"I think the reason you won't have heard of him is the same reason you and Velvet have had such a fun time becoming friends." It wasn't meant as an insult, but even he could tell that the two girls were still struggling with not letting their stereotyping control their interactions with each other.

"He's a Faunus?" Jaune nodded before wincing as the memories bubbled to the surface.

"Was, he was one of the first to die, though I imagine those details were well recorded by the survivors, so I won't go into the details of the attack. I suppose if you are asking then you don't know about Amber's injuries?" As Weiss shook her head, obviously a little confused at where he was going with this, Jaune decided his sister could forgive him later for revealing her little secret.

After all, if they got into Weiss' good books, perhaps she could arrange something with her father to get rid of the debt entirely.

"Well, it all started with the bombs..."

 _!"£$%^ &*()_+_

 _The festival was in full flow as they arrived, with stalls and makeshift rides littering the large square in the middle of the small town and the crowds swelled with visitors from nearby villages as well as central Vale itself._

 __" _How's the new armour Jaune? Look's good on you..." Amber's comment made Jaune need to quell the urge to fiddle with his new chest piece once again, the full plate armour made by the aged Rhino Faunus heavy enough that Amber had needed to activate his Aura in order for him to be able to wear it effectively._

" _It itches, why did I need to wear it now Amber? Surely we could have picked it up in the morning and I wouldn't feel like I was trying to move through Forever Fall Sap?" Amber chuckled and reached up to pinch his cheek in her usual overly-touchy manner._

" _Because this means you can start getting used to it a day earlier, and the girls always like a man in arm..." Amber was cut off by both of them being blown forward, their aura's protecting them from the physical force of the blast but unable to prevent the damage done to their senses, Jaune's perception of the world reduced to blurry visions of wreckage of the large bandstand they had been stood in front of littering the crowds that had been happily milling around moments before._

" _-aune, Jaune!" One benefit of aura was that it did help in regaining his senses faster than normal, his vision settling and the ringing reducing to a dull thudding in his ears as Jaune pushed himself onto his hands and knees._

" _Death to humans and their pets!" Even as Amber reached his position, the sounds of fighting and gunfire managed to penetrate the numbness that was currently filling his ears, the screams of the crowd getting louder as the people around him scattered like sheep in the face of a pack of wolves._

" _Amber? Amber, what's..." His sister cut him off as she pulled him to his feet with one hand, dragging him behind her as bullets slammed into her aura._

" _White Fang!" The word sent a chill down Jaune's spine as he caught sight of the masked people moving through the crowd towards them, some pushing the normal people aside whilst others simply cut them down with their weapons._

" _We knew there would be one Arc brat here for us to send a message with, but the boy being here means we can use him as the message and keep the girl for other purposes..." The announcement came from a slim and relatively short white fang member who had been the one to shoot at Amber first, though the way he was smiling whilst gesturing with his gun at his sister made it clear what he intended to happen with the 'spare'._

 _A couple of the other White Fang members laughed, though even with the angry haze starting to give him tunnel vision Jaune could see a couple of the masked Faunus casting openly disapproving looks towards the speaker, who was overly confident now that he had numbers to back him up._

" _So why don't you just put the weapons down, and then we can work things ou..." Amber didn't even wait for the Fang member to finish before cutting him off in her usual style, the flail head shooting from the haft of her weapon like a rocket and sending him flying back into the crowd of people still panicking behind them._

 _The other White Fang members seemed to take offence to this particularly abrupt ending of negotiations, Jaune drawing Crocea Mors even as several of them charged forwards towards them. Stepping in front of his sister, as it would be several seconds before her weapon and wound itself in far enough for her to use again, he brought up the now expanded sheath to block the first attack by a Wolf Faunus armed with a Katana._

 _With everything else that happened that night, Jaune's memory of the next few minutes was a blur of frantic defence as he kept some of the White Fang members occupied whilst his sister dealt with the others. His aura had been useful at the start of the fight, but the repeated attacks that made it through his guard sapped it rapidly even with the benefit of his new armour, which now sported several scars and puncture marks to show its christening in combat._

 _The next part that stuck out clearly in Jaune's head was when he and Amber were staring down the remaining half a dozen white fang members, both sides taking a moment to catch their breath and analyse their remaining opponents, as fallen White Fang and civilians alike tried to crawl or limp away from the combat area. Even as the new leader of the White fang group, a female goat Faunus if the horns sticking out over her mask were to go by, stepped forward there was a cry from somewhere in the distance that sent cold shivers up Jaune's spine._

" _GRIMM!"_

 _!"£$%^ &*()_+_

"Obviously the White Fang hadn't anticipated the two of us to put up such a fight, there was no way they couldn't have expected the bombings to lure the Grimm in with the mayhem and negative emotions it generated, but after the first Nevermore took out their escape transport they were in as much trouble as we were." Jaune shook his head as he looked across at Weiss, who seemed honestly enthralled by his tale.

"If they had just bombed the grandstand with the intent to capture us then Arcadia would probably have survived long enough for Hunters to arrive, but one of them thought it was a genius idea to blow a hole in the perimeter wall and several other locations without telling his superiors, which meant that the amount of Grimm and the speed in which they got into the town was far faster than anticipated..." He could see that Weiss was confused by how he had worded that, let it not be said the Schnee heiress was slow on the uptake in the slightest, so he elaborated before she could interrupt.

"All thoughts of them capturing us when out the window with their escape transport being trashed, though if given the choice at the time I would probably have taken being captured instead of what seemed to be certain death, and the goat Faunus seemed to realise that fighting us and the Grimm at the same time really wasn't the best idea. I wouldn't say we parted as friends, but fighting your way across a burning town tends to make you bond with even the worst of people..."

!"£$%^&*()_+

" _Watch your left!" The call made Jaune react on instinct, raising his shield in time to catch a pouncing Gaunt full on the snout, sending the small dog Grimm flying away from them even as Jaune impaled the Beowolf he had already been fighting with Crocea Mors._

 _Looking up, Jaune's face turned into an angry frown as he saw the goat Faunus from before, leading 3 other White Fang members from one of the side streets. Given the bladed long bow in the Faunus' hands, he raised his shield defensively whilst Amber cut down the remaining Grimm._

" _Are you seriously still trying to capture us? Don't we have bigger problems? Problems that are entirely your fault?" Maybe antagonising the White Fang wasn't a good plan given the genocide that was taking place around them, but the baptism of fire and blood really hadn't improved Jaune's mood, and in all likelihood they were going to die here regardless._

 _They had been separated by the arrival of a murder of Nevermore into the main square, several of the White Fang being devoured or torn apart in short order as they tried to force their way through the swarms of flying Grimm to the Arc siblings, providing the two of them with the opportunity to retreat into the main body of the town. Seeing as the loudest sounds of fighting and dying seemed to be coming from the South Amber had led them North, as that was now their best chance of surviving to see the next sunrise._

" _Now is not the time to be allocating blame, especially seeing as this was not the plan, or do you really think I want to die here?" The Goat Faunus drew and unleashed the arrow in her bow as she was speaking, but she wasn't aiming at either of the Arc's as the arrow embedded itself in the chest of the Gaunt that was just returning to the fight._

 _A strange calm fell over the area, obviously the Gaunt had been the last Grimm of this particular cluster as Amber was suddenly at his side once more, flail ready and pointing in the White Fang's direction as the Goat Faunus lowered the bow in what was obviously meant to be a pacifying gesture._

" _Look, all we were told was there would be the bomb in the band stand, which would disorientate you long enough that we could take you down and kidnap you. Bisque and the others said nothing about the other bombs or what they were planning to do with you afterwards, though I should have known better than to take that bloodthirsty bastard at his word. You don't have to trust us, I would be asking far too much of you for that, but trust that we want to get out of here alive as much as you do..."_

!"£$%^ &*()_+

"You worked with the White Fang? Even after they had tried to kidnap you and..." Weiss cut herself off, though Jaune could tell she was thinking about what the snake Faunus had implied about his sister, something that she no doubt had nightmares about the White Fang doing to her as well.

"Given that we weren't even Beacon trainees at that stage we really didn't have much of a choice, even if they decided to leave us alone we wouldn't have made it through the Grimm swarming into the town given the aura damage we had already taken from the explosion and fighting the other White Fang." Weiss was obviously conflicted about the idea, but it was one of those situations that Jaune knew was difficult to understand if you hadn't actually been there.

"But the newspaper reports made no mention of White Fang beyond the initial bombing..." Weiss' statement/question made Jaune chuckle and gesture out over Vale, the slowly rising sun putting much of the city into light relief.

"And you think the Council wants to let the image of White Fang and the Arc family working together in any sense make it's way out to the people of Vale? We aren't anywhere near as important as your own family is in Atlas, but our name still means quite a bit outside the capital of Vale, so any mention of the White Fang that didn't paint them as murderous terrorists was hushed up pretty quickly. Besides, most of them didn't survive the journey to the wall..."

!"£$%^&*()_+

" _Damn it all..." The muttered growl from the goat Faunus, whose name seemed to be Noire by what one of her fellow White Fang members had cried out when he had been overwhelmed by a wave of Beowolves, made Jaune look over from where he was standing watch._

 _They had lost the first White Fang member to a Griffon that had plucked her from the rooftops they had been traversing to avoid the Grimm pouring through the streets, and the last one had just bled out from the wounds he had received taking down an Ursa Major that had stumbled across them as they rested. Despite the fact that they had been trying to kidnap them, Jaune could now say he believed her earlier words about this not being part of the plan that these Faunus had known about, the fear that they had exhibited made it clear that these weren't experienced Grimm combatants._

" _We need to keep moving, we are less than 200 metres from the wall." Noire's comment was filled with the grim determination of someone who had a score to settle now, no doubt with her superiors in the White Fang who had either lied to her or had sacrificed her as part of this plan._

" _Yes, we just keep following the river and we will be able to get into the forest as long as the Grimm aren't still swarming the walls." Amber's mood was sombre to say the least, but her plan of moving so that they had the river to their back seemed to be working, as it prevented them from being fully surrounded by the ground based Grimm as they tried to escape._

 _It also cut off their ability to withdraw, but the trade off was definitely worth the risk given that all three of them were almost out of Aura, Jaune's new plate armour already reduced to a damaged breast plate and the vambraces as the Grimm took their toll. As they stood to move forward, Jaune saw Amber's eyes widen as she looked in his direction, the action informing of the threat a moment too late, his half formed block as he tried to spin round merely preventing the claws of the Alpha Beowolf from tearing him in two._

" _Jaune!" Surprisingly the cry came from both Noire and Amber, though all Jaune could focus on was the sheer pain he felt through his shield arm as he was sent flying backwards into the wall of one of the buildings, his diminished Aura doing very little to prevent the agony that erupted from his back at the impact._

 _Still, this was no time for whining, Jaune forcing himself to one knee as he saw the Alpha Beowolf dodge his sisters Flail attack before shrugging off Noire's arrow to the shoulder as it charged towards him again. He tried to bring his shield up, but his arm was still numb from the first blow, the Beowolf batting aside Crocea Mors with it's arm as it's maw went to engulf his skull._

 _Blood splattered his face, shock overcoming him as Amber was suddenly there, her arm stopping the Beowolf's bite in it's tracks even as her flail came round in her other hand._

" _Not today you bastard!" The Grimm didn't understand human speech, but this Alpha seemed to still take offence at the insult, a deep growl emanating from its throat as it bit down harder as the flail impacted its chest..._

 _!"£$%^ &*()_+_

"She lost her arm just below the elbow, and if it hadn't been for Noire after my rather foolish heroics, there would have been no way Amber would have survived until the reinforcements arrived. I wasn't around for the aftermath, but from what I understand your father knew my mother from several missions she had taken in Atlas before I was born, and made my parents a deal about 6 months after Arcadia fell." Weiss' expression still showed her shock at the revelation about Amber's injury, though the mention of her father seemed to sober her up.

"And knowing my father, it was not anything remotely close to a fair deal..." The slight venom in her voice made Jaune glance in her direction, obviously the Schnee family wasn't as close knit as they liked the world to believe if that was Weiss' view of her father.

"Actually, given that the arm Amber has is custom built and top of the range, most of what he asked for was remarkably simple. Amber spent a year at a SDC testing facility with her new arm, though she can't tell any of us what she got up to there, and my parents had to take several missions for the Schnee family free of charge, but given the circumstances it was a lot better than getting Amber a basic model..." Weiss smiled in obvious surprise, before she seemed to catch onto what he had said and frowned.

"You said 'most of what he asked for', what aren't you telling me Jaune?" Jaune sighed, hoping that she hadn't noticed his wording.

"Your dad also made it so that the Arc family owed the Schnee family an undisclosed favour, which could be anything and for an undisclosed period of time until it was agreed that the debt was paid..." Up to and including suicidal missions or actions against the law, though Jaune preferred not to reveal how desperate his parents had been to agree to such a thing.

"And so once you found out I was the Schnee heiress, the idea that I could then call in the favour at any time..." Jaune nodded, and though Weiss had mellowed considerably since they had first met he couldn't help but be nervous of her reaction, which was not helped by the somewhat devious smile that slowly crept across Weiss' face before she spoke once more.

"Well, I think I can speak to my father about using the debt in his stead, though it would have to be something valuable enough to convince my father to allow it..." Doing his best to avoid letting his mental groan turn into an audible one, Jaune resisted the urge to drop his head into his hands as he knew that he wouldn't like the answer to his next question.

"And it sounds like you have a good idea of where you want to start?" Even as Weiss' nod made a metaphorical death note sound in his head, Jaune kept looking at the 'bright side' of the situation, compared to whatever her father might have had in mind for that favour, Weiss' requests couldn't be that bad...

 **A/N: And so we disclose the events of Arcadia Falls, as well as some of the revelations about the Arc/Schnee agreement. Schnee Senior will have made such a deal so that in the long term, the benefits of providing Amber's arm will far outweigh the costs of said arm, which Weiss knows and will take account of when trying to convince him to let her use the favour.**

 **So, ideas for things Weiss could ask of Jaune/Amber? Keep it PG please guys :P And what was her other request going to be before they got wrapped up in this story-telling experience?**

 **As usual, review at your leisure, though inspiration and comments do get the ball rolling for the next chapter a lot faster... hint hint.**


	8. A Study in Grimm

"Point seventeen, Jaune Arc will act as Weiss Schnee's escort and bodyguard to all formal events for the period of their time at Beacon until Weiss Schnee graduates, unless one of the following clauses are activated. 1, Either of the above are affected by a malady that necessitates time in the medical bay. 2, One of them is away on a mission that cannot be re-arranged or passed onto another team... Has anyone told you that you are a little too OCD for your own good Weiss-cream?" Despite her teasing tone, Yang had to admit that she was more than a little impressed by the contract that Weiss had written out, even if she wouldn't expand on the 'dues owed by the Arc family to the Schnee family' no matter how much teasing she gave the young heiress.

"136 pages is actually quite short for a contract such as this, and without an official document I could never get my father to sign off on it. Besides, Jaune should be honoured to spend so much time with me, it will also give him a chance to meet many of Vale's people of interest at the various events that father will no doubt insist I go to in exchange for it..." Yang managed to keep the teasing smirk on her face, even as she mentally frowned at the expression that came over Weiss' face when she mentioned her father, smirk widening slightly as she worked out a way to get them off what could easily become an awkward situation given how Ruby was already looking like she wanted to pipe up.

"You know Weiss, if you wanted Jaune to become your boyfriend I am sure just asking him would have been an easier route... I don't think you needed to be so _cold_ and clinical about it." To Weiss' credit she managed to last a whole 3 seconds after her awesome pun and insinuation before turning bright red in the face and turning on her with a glare that could have melted the ice Yang so often claimed Weiss was made from.

"How dare you imply..." Whatever else Weiss was going to say was cut off as Professor Port finally appeared into the lecture theatre, which was a shame as Yang had been looking forward to watching Mt Weiss erupt so beautifully, the heiress merely disregarding her with a huff and turning back to the front whilst obviously trying to reduce her blush without having to resort to ice dust.

"Yang, don't be so mean... And you don't mean it do you? About...About Jaune." Ruby's whisper from her right had Yang's attention off Weiss so fast that she almost heard her neck crack with the speed she turned her head.

"Does my little sister have a crush? And on your fellow team leader as well... You two would be so adorkable together..." As her sister's face turned into a blush to rival Weiss', Yang couldn't decide whether or not she needed to have a little 'chat' with her fellow blonde, Amber would understand if she roughed him up a bit to make sure he 'behaved'...

"Young Hunters and Huntresses, as much as I would like to jump straight into another one of my lectures about my younger days fighting the Grimm, there is firstly the matter of our first team competition of the year to be discussed." The boisterous baritone of Port's voice, announcing something other than one of his 'youthful adventures' seemed to grab the attention of the room before anyone could drop off to sleep in their usual manner, and Yang would be the first to admit her competitive side made her listen in as Port gestured at the board behind him, covered in chalk drawings of more than 2 dozen Grimm species.

"This Friday is the first time the second years will be sent out on missions across Vale, and it is a tradition of ours that we send a team into the Emerald forest to deal with any remaining Grimm that were drawn to the area by your initiation. On top of that, we have sent a first year team to observe and assist in the clearing of the forest each year, alternating the chosen group depending on which teacher is on the rotation to pick that year. You will get paid from the Beacon mission fund if you perform adequately and the report on your behaviour by the second year team is positive, and the main reason for this that you need to get used to working with people of different ages and abilities to your own! Why I remember back in the day..." And at that point Yang zoned out Professor Port's regression to his reminiscin-she means teaching style, when he eventually got to the point of explaining what the 'competition' was Yang knew that Weiss would write it down even if no-one else did, so it's not like she needed to pay attention anymore.

And it's not like any other team would beat theirs, no matter what the competition was they had every angle covered, Weiss could beat anyone in a written test and she wasn't a slouch even if Professor Port put her to sleep more often than not. And though it might sound a little overconfident, Yang was more than prepared to boast that the only one who might be herself in a fight was Pyrrha, and even then Yang thought she might be able to win it if it was usual duelling rules.

Blake covered them in terms of stealth and subterfuge, whilst Ruby was a mix of all three of them with her ridiculous speed on top of that! They couldn't lose, and then they would get to go show a second year team up at Grimm hunting and show how cool they were with a Yang! Chuckling at her own mental pun, Yang grunted as Ruby elbowed her firmly under the table, bringing her out of her reminiscing just in time for her to catch Professor Port explaining the competition.

"Each team will use their knowledge of the Grimm, either from their own personal knowledge and experience or the information I have bestowed upon you thus far, to write an 2 page essay detailing which combination of Secondus Grimm and Minor Grimm are the most potent and dangerous threat to a village of people in Vale, protected by a single B-class huntsmen and 12 guardsmen. The essay that leads to the highest number of theoretical casualties in a simulation of their attack shall be judged by myself to be the winner." The man finally paused for breath before gesturing up at the board.

"Now, you don't have to select a Secondus Grimm if you can think of a combination of Minor Grimm, but if you do the essay should written with the premise that there is only a single Secondus Grimm. I have put up the list of allowed Secondus Grimm on the board behind me, the other information has been sent to your leader's scrolls, and you have until tomorrow to hand in the essay to me or one of the other lecturers. All of your classes for the rest of the day have been cancelled, so I expect to have some good reading material by the end of the day!" And with that Port did his usual bellowing chuckle before the entire room burst into discussion, Yang leaning back in her seat with a chuckle, this was right up Weiss' street and she wouldn't have to get involved at all.

"This should be easy for you Weiss, let us know if you need someone to proofread it when you are done." Judging by the frown on the heiress' face as she turned to the three of them though, Weiss didn't share her confidence.

"But I don't know very much at all about Vale Grimm, and what I do know about them is either Majoris level and above or learned from..." She cut herself off, but the glance over to where team JNPR were packing their bags with a series of happy looks implied exactly where her knowledge had come from.

"We are talking about someone who lived in the Vale badlands for two years, for all we know this exercise is based on something he experienced whilst out there..." Yang was surprised, Weiss almost sounded... worried about the competition, and though she only knew the basics of Jaune's story based on what Amber had told her Yang knew she might have a point.

"Well, in which case we have no choice but to work together to beat them, to the library!" Ruby's commanding statement would have probably had more of an effect if she hadn't got cookie crumbs around her mouth from her 'pre-Port snack', which was Weiss' exasperated concession to get her little sister to pay attention in the man's class.

"So... Nevermind, it's clear that you are never going to actually listen to my attempts to make you into a respectable leader. Are you coming Blake?" Weiss' question didn't surprise Yang, whilst Blake was normally the quiet one of the group it was clear that she was being quieter than normal, though Yang had put it down to the ranging lessons the noirette had to partake in as part of the scouting classes.

"Of course, I'm fine... Can we go?" Something had spooked the girl, and judging by her refusal to look anywhere near the board as they negotiated their way past the other groups still in the room it was one of the Grimm that Professor Port had drawn, but Yang managed to resist the urge to ask further.

She still had nightmares about when she had stupidly gone out to try and find her mother and nearly got both her and Ruby killed, so other people being haunted by memories of the past was something she could understand.

"Of course partner, we wouldn't want to Yang around such a Blake place when we have a competition to win!" So Yang stepped in as she usually did when she felt the situation get awkward or unfriendly, distracting the rest of her team as the all groaned at the same time before turning away and undoubtedly rolling their eyes.

But she didn't care, they were a team now, and Dad had always insisted on one rule above all else when he had talked about hunter teams.

' _Teams are like family, they will laugh, argue and fight over the smallest things like everybody does, but at the end of it all they are the ones you have to trust when your back is to the wall and the Grimm are closing in. So make sure that whatever team you're on, you make them smile as much as you make them groan...'_

And though they would never admit it after seeing her tackle Jaune to the ground for laughing at one of her puns, Yang knew the other three members of her team shared a smile before stepping off away from her, exactly as she had intended them to...

[]{}#%^*+=

"So Velv, which of these firsties do you think we will get laboured with?" Coco's question made Velvet pause in her attempts to take subtle photos for her semblance, doing her best to avoid looking in the direction of the team she _wanted_ to come with them as that would be what Coco was waiting for.

"You wanted to win as much as we did Coco, stop being such a downer about the whole thing..." Velvet relaxed slightly as Fox leaned back in his chair with his usual relaxed smirk being thrown in his partner's direction, his sarcastic wit and ability to make even Coco lose control of her emotions with his words something that was no doubt in the back of their leader's mind as she resisted the urge to reply to the comment with more than an angry look.

"We already know which teams are coming with us guys, so it's not worth arguing over..." Velvet couldn't help but look at Yatsu in shock, the gentle toned giant merely smiling in his usual warm manner at her questioning glance, what did he mean teams?

"You zoned out of Professor Port's talk when he announced we won our competition didn't you little one?" Velvet flushed as he pointed out her problem with Professor Port's style, the man constantly got distracted in his talking with his own tales and it just made him so... Frustrating!

"She's not the only one, I'm surprised you can put up with him Yatsu, but I suppose if anyone can it would be you. Now, what did you mean teams?" Yatsu merely continued smiling in his usual gentle manner before directing their attention to the arrival of the man in question, backed surprisingly by Dr Oobleck and Professor Peach of all people.

"Attention everyone! The results of your essays are in, and for the first time in the period that I have been running this test I have had more than one team achieve complete lethality of the villagers in a believable manner. But before we discuss them, I first want to impress upon the rest of you why so many of you got such low scores in the test." Professor Port gestured grandly to the screen on his left and over a dozen teams appeared, each with a mark of less than 50%.

"Many of you did not give an account of your 'village' and its terrain, in fact a few of you seemed to forget that there was a village at all and just had your Grimm trying to take down the huntsman on open ground. Such lack of attention to detail is something that would have you fail this class if you carried on in the same manner to the end of the year, as considering the advantages and disadvantages of your terrain is a skill that is vital to hunters as it is for the Grimm." At the admonishment Velvet could see more than a few flushed faces in the crowd as a few of the class turned to glare at another sitting close to them, but if they hadn't actually read the work they had dumped on one of the team it was as much their own fault as the one who had written it.

"Then there were those who managed to at least create their theoretical battleground correctly and array their Grimm on the battlefield to take the village and defeat the inhabitants, but did so in a manner that thankfully the Grimm are not capable of performing without at least one Alpha Grimm being present. The use of feints, cover and advanced tactics show that whilst these authors had a good understanding of strategy, they didn't have knowledge about the Grimm and how they would act in the wild." Velvet had to admit that the serious tone Professor Port was using surprised her, he obviously was taking this very seriously if he wasn't going off on a tangent every other sentence.

"These teams scored slightly higher, but wouldn't get anything beyond 60% if this had been an exam question." Another set of team names appeared, smaller in number but between it and the first list must have made up more than 2/3 of the class.

"There were only 6 teams that scored over 70%, which would be considered the pass grade for this kind of question in the exams, and these were the ones that we ran theoretical exercises to test the effectiveness of their attacks." The scores of the 6 teams were put up for a moment, just long enough for Velvet to notice that both of her preferred teams were in the running, as well as the team of bullies that her team had 'words with'.

Then they were replaced with three percentage figures, that Velvet assumed from what she had read of the assignment represented the huntsman's aura, the guardsmen and the civilians respectively. What surprised her was there were three teams that had a 100% figure next to the civilian figure, though one of them she noted with some glee had a giant red cross through it.

"As you can see, there were three teams that achieved 100% lethality of the civilian population, but obviously one team thought that I wouldn't recognise the almost identical method and wording used in the winning entry from the last time I ran this competition 3 years ago." Professor Port's gaze rested firmly on Team Cardinal at this point, and though the team leader glared back mutinously the other three looked uncomfortable enough to make it clear that it had been cheating rather than accidental.

"As such, whilst we go over the other two simulations, team Cardinal will go with Professor Peach for some remedial reminders about the advantages of doing their own work." It was surprising how cold the normally boisterous and over the top veteran was being as Peach collected the cheating team and removed them from the room in the quiet but no nonsense manner she was known for, but Velvet knew that Beacon took things such as cheating very seriously, even on non-graded work such as this.

Team Cardinal was probably lucky that they were the first offenders in this year, as that would mean they could claim some level of ignorance even if it was blatantly obvious that they had done it on purpose, so that would save them from the most severe punishments this time. But even if they weren't at risk of being suspended, they would not enjoy the results of their testing the academic waters.

"The first team paired an interesting set of Grimm together, and they also managed to find a loophole in my instructions by utilising the 'Mutalis' variant of an Ursa as their Secondus Grimm." There was a small whistling sound from Velvet's right, indicating that the fashionable mini-gun wielder was impressed with whatever that revelation had been announced by Professor Port just then, but judging by the confused looks elsewhere in the room Coco was one of the few to understand what was going on.

"Ms Rose, as it was your team that thought of the Mutalis, why don't you explain to your fellow classmates what the different sub-sets are categorised as and what prompted your choice of Grimm?" The young team leader looked like she was a deer caught in the headlights for a moment, before a nudge from her white haired team mate made her repeat something under her breath a couple of times before standing, whatever she said causing the three other members of team RWBY to clearly struggle at holding in their laughter.

"The main sub-categories of Grimm are usually not divided by species but rather by perceived threat rating that a single beast or pack poses, starting at Pestus classification for small Grimm such as Gaunts that even a civilian has a good chance against one on one." The fact that pretty much every Grimm in that category were pack animals went unsaid, but even a pack of Gaunts wouldn't cause much trouble against trainee hunters.

"Then we have Minoris and Secundus tier Grimm, which feature Beowolves, Ursa Minor, Ursa Major and so on, the divide upon which side a Grimm falls in these two cases is usually dependent on the age of the Grimm in question. The exceptions are Mutalis and Mutantis sub-species of these creatures, which are always classed as Secundus Grimm regardless of the origins of the altered Grimm in either Minoris or Secundus." Professor Port seemed pleased at her detailed answer, though given Velvet could see Weiss (who refused to let her call her by her surname) mouthing the words at points, it seemed she had spent some time drilling the details into Ruby's head.

"Very good Ms Rose, we will cover Mutantis Grimm in your second year as they are the rarest of the sub species you may encounter. But given the use of a Mutalis Ursa here I will use the simulation to show you both what one might look like and how it would act." The screen behind him lit up as Dr Oobleck pressed a button on his scroll, the camera doing a 360 degree turn around an animated village based in thick woodland at night time, with a few dozen houses and a palisade wall that was probably a dozen feet high.

"As you all know from the details I sent through to your scrolls, the limiting Grimm presence was to be rated at no more than a combat rating of 500, which would be 3 times the defensive strength of the village. This was both to force you to look into the categorisations of Grimm for combat rating values, as well as to make your lives a little easier when planning. Whilst team RWBY planned for using the full 500 'points' as it were, the use of this particular Mutalis as well as their choice of supporting Grimm meant that we were able to calculate that you would only need 437 combat rating's worth of Grimm in order to achieve civilian lethality in two out of the three scenarios we tested." The camera swivelled round and down into the forest to the south of the village, Velvet recognising the creature it ended up focusing on even as several in the crowd gasped at its appearance.

"The Bloody Maw..." The Ursa was massive even for one of its kind, slamming into trees and trampling undergrowth beneath its bulk as it lumbered forwards, single red eye focussed on the darkness ahead of it. Velvet was surprised at how much the beast was still capable of terrifying her even as a computer animation, Yatsu's comforting hand coming to rest on her shoulder without a word as she did her best to get her breathing back under control.

"Quite the beast isn't it? As you can see, a large portion of the Grimm's mask has been shattered, though no one can pinpoint exactly which mission or battle this might of occurred in. Usually if you shatter a Grimm's mask then the Grimm will perish almost instantly, but in some rare cases only a portion of it will disintegrate, leaving a portion of it behind to keep the Grimm alive. This is how Mutalis class Grimm are 'born', though their grasp on the world around them is even more limited than their 'full-bodied brethren..." As if to prove a point the massive Ursa suddenly reached back with its jaw and bit deeply into one of the few points on its body that now weren't completely covered in bone armour.

"An injured Grimm will recover and adapt to injuries it has sustained, growing armour plating, thicker hides and denser muscle as it gets older, eventually becoming an Alpha Grimm as its experiences provide that growth in intelligence to match. Thankfully, Mutalis Grimm are even less strategically aware than normal Grimm due to the damage they have received, which causes them to embark on a frenzied mixture of self-flagellation and hunger for battle." Ripping its maw for the thick fur of its upper front arm, the Ursa suddenly started bounding forward as fast as its large frame could muster, the camera staying ahead of it to show that wound it had taken was rapidly healing once more.

"It will fight like a rabid animal, with no concern for its own well being or risks posed to it, and because it forces along its own evolution as it were it can be near impossible to put down by a single hunter. Many of these Mutalis creatures become infamous in the Wilds, the dark stories told to remind even huntsmen to remind them that some Grimm truly are the stuff of nightmares, and each of the Kingdoms offers standing rewards for the verified sightings of known Mutalis Grimm" Obviously it's approach to the village had been noted by the guardsmen, as one in a watchtower behind the palisade raised the alarm, three of the other guardsmen rushing towards the section of the wall the massive Grimm was approaching even as the golden figure representing the huntsman started moving around the house he had been placed in.

"Now some of the other essays didn't seem to understand that all 12 guardsmen and the huntsman wouldn't be on duty at the same time, which is understandable as most of you no doubt come from the major cities and therefore are used to having a full standing watch force at all times. In the less civilised parts of the world however, and this is something for you to remember when you start going on long term missions, the Grimm won't just come when you are ready for them..."

It seemed some in the class understood that notion better than others, Velvet could see several of the gathered first years flinch in memory at Professor Port's words, though that could also have been as the video cut to the Ursa tearing one of the simulated Guardsmen in two with one bite of it's maw after knocking a section of the palisade over like it had been made of paper.

"Guardsmen are Vale's first line of defence for those who live in such villages and towns, whilst they aren't trained to the same level as you will be here many of them can take on several Grimm even in close combat, but against a Mutalis level beast..." Even as the Ursa gave a roar that made her sensitive ears hurt, Velvet noticed the approach of several more red dots approaching from different sections of the forest around the village, the camera cutting away from the Ursa's rampage to a section of the Northern palisade where a Guardsman was looking towards the sound of the fighting, unaware of the Grimm that climbed the wall and then dropped onto the flooring behind her almost silently.

"Beringel... Nice choice." It always unnerved Velvet slightly how Faunus her team mate could determine things like the type of Grimm in a simulation by just the sound of their footsteps, but given his lack of sight whilst still being a huntsman student she supposed it was the sort of ability that wasn't only useful but vital for his combat abilities.

"As some of you may be unaware, this type of Grimm is called a Beringel and they are probably the most human-like of the Grimm that you will encounter in your time as huntsmen. They are widely considered the most intelligent species of Minor/Secundus Grimm, and mixed with their high durability and strength they are every Guardsman's worst nightmare." That was true, Velvet had only faced half a dozen of the beasts in her time at Beacon, and even though the one in the simulation was clearly a Minoris level Grimm it was still almost half again the size of the Guardsman it snuck up on.

The Guardsman didn't even get a chance to react as the Beringel wrapped its giant arms around her and _squeezed_ , the poor woman's struggles barely lasting a few seconds before several loud cracks brought them abruptly to an end. Between this and the Ursa's violence earlier several of the students were now looking slightly ill, something that Velvet knew was done on purpose to start hazing the students as it had happened with their 'test' last year as well, the last thing you wanted was a huntsman freezing up in the field because one of his comrades/charges had died messily nearby.

"Grimm are not only drawn by negative emotions, their other senses are just as good if not better than ours and this means that explosions and gunfire will usually only summon more Grimm." Thankfully Professor Port didn't seem willing to drag out the rest of the simulation, the Professor moving the camera view of the simulation to show the overhead view as the red dots showed more and more Grimm infiltrating the village as the huntsman engaged the Mutalis Ursa in an attempt to distract it from the Guardsmen, though the dozen Beringels were able to quickly overwhelm the scattered and disorganised defenders with only 4 of them being killed in return.

As the civilian losses climbed higher and higher it was clear that the simulation was pretty much over, but Velvet could hear people's surprise as the huntsman started withdrawing once the last Guardsman fell, something that Professor Port was quick to expand upon.

"Despite what you hear about a Huntsman's duty to fight the Grimm to the last breath, you will find that we are not training you to be martyrs, sometimes the hardest choice you will have to make is when to abandon the field to the Grimm so that you can live to fight another day. As callous as it seems, your lives are worth more than a failed mission or an overrun village, there are too few Huntsmen for us to give our lives so recklessly."

The message clearly struck some in the room more than others, Ruby looking like someone had just kicked a puppy in front of her or something, even her sister looked put out by the idea of running away from the Grimm rather than crushing them in battle. Even Velvet still hadn't fully accepted the idea of leaving helpless civilians to die, but if there was one thing the Vale Council were very clear on it was that anywhere outside of the main protected zone of Vale and its surrounding area was expendable in their eyes.

"Now, for the second simulation a Grimm was selected that hadn't been included in our simulation programming, which was only part of the reason I was so surprised at the essay in question. We have managed to get the Grimm in question included into the programming, but before we begin the simulation, perhaps team JNPR would like to explain their reasoning for not choosing a Secondus Grimm for this exercise at all?"

That got everyone's attention, even as Port pressed a button and the chosen Grimm by Jaune's team appeared on the screen, several people laughing at the first one before they seemed to realise that Port was entirely serious. To his credit, Jaune just gestured in the direction of the laughter as he stood up, face serious as he spoke firmly.

"That is exactly the reason why we chose the Grimm we did, everyone is here because they can kill Grimm, probably some fairly big ones if initiation was anything was to go by. But with that experience comes the overconfidence that those living in the Wilds associate with Kingdom huntsmen, that anything short of an Ursa in terms of 'strength' as you have defined it isn't a danger." Looking away from the blonde team leader for a moment as he paused for what she assumed was effect, Velvet glanced at the projector screen to see what Grimm he was talking about, the snarling face of the Grimm in question a lot less scary when it was in proportion to the human next to it for reference.

"Verminkind are considered one of the weakest Grimm, to the point that the Professor hadn't even assigned them a combat score for this test, after all even a pack of them can be dealt with easily enough with some AoE dust. After I spoke with him it took me quite the effort to convince my team to agree with my choice for the essay, I had to dig up a report from my grandfathers time to prove my point."

Jaune had obviously arranged all of this with Professor Port beforehand as the projector screen changed to a rather grainy picture that seemed to have been taken from a soldier's helmet video, but the literal wall of black fur and teeth that was enveloping several people in perhaps the bloodiest manner imaginable was easily discernible to Velvet's horror.

"Welcome to the Devastation of Hamlin, one of the bloodiest examples in recent history of the fact that ALL Grimm can be terrifying in the wrong circumstances, as well as one of the few validated reports of a Verminkind plague..." One of the students in the front row actually bolted from the room before Port changed the image to that of the beginning of the simulation, several others looking like they might join her judging by the green faces visible.

"Damn, blondie sure knows how to shock a crowd, I imagine several people are going to be looking up Hamlin after this, though from how he is speaking it sounds like he has more of a personal experience with these Verminkind..." Rather than sounding disgusted, Coco sounded almost impressed as she looked at the young man she had been teasing Velvet about after the incident in the library, the attention she was showing probably meant Jaune had moved from 'teasing material' to 'interesting', and from there it was just a short leap to 'shopping trip target'/acquaintance.

Professor Port was actually beaming as he stepped back up onto the lecturing stage, Jaune taking this as a cue to sit down as the Professor started speaking once more.

"The devastation of Hamlin is often considered a third year topic, but as Mr Arc has so brilliantly utilised it as a base for his own team's essay my colleague Professor Oobleck will be doing a special seminar about it this Friday evening available to all." The indignant call of 'Dr Oobleck' from the history teacher in question was ignored by the moustached Hunter as he gestured up at the simulation.

"The simulation for Verminkind isn't perfect, as we had some trouble actually assigning combat values that balanced the simulation, even a combat value of 0.1 meant that JNPR's essay beat every known result for this tests minimum combat value by almost 50 points, primarily due to their choice of secondary Grimm..." Rather than expanding, Port merely started the simulation, showing a town at the top of a rise surrounded by fields on three sides and a long slope down to a forest on the fourth side.

Then a haunting melody began playing as a single red dot appeared on the large map, Velvet distracted from the simulation at the _growl_ that erupted from Fox as the music got louder, the Fox Faunus looking like he was barely restraining himself from drawing his weapons as Oobleck spoke to the class for the first time.

"What you are hearing is the sound of the Grimm we refer to as Pipers, who whilst classified as Minoris Grimm are one of the creatures that can have entire groups of hunters despatched to eliminate if there is a confirmed report. By themselves they aren't considered dangerous, but there are two distinct features that ensure their infamy in all the kingdoms." The melody pervaded the room as the camera moved to show what almost looked like a cloaked child, if it weren't for the black skin, red eyes and large horn like appendage that shot up from the front of their 'face'.

It then suddenly bloated like putrefied corpse, it's belly expanding to the point that it's cloak no longer sufficiently covered it as the music was silenced, before a high pitched whine made Velvet grab her ears in pain. A moment later the noise stopped and Velvet could see that she hadn't been the only one to react adversely, every Faunus in the room having been affected to various degrees.

"The Piper is capable of producing a sound through its nose 'pipe' that is undetectable by human hearing that can carry across kilometres, and it has an almost universal summoning effect on the Grimm who hear it. The only creatures that seem able to resist its call are Extremis level and above, even King Taijitu have been known to appear as part of a 'Grimm Mob', whilst all others will converge upon the Piper's location with an almost single-minded determination." The mini-map began to darken at Professor Port's words, as from all directions a tide of red dots began to appear, the alarm in the village blaring as the guardsman began to react to the music even as the Huntsman left through one of the gates.

"Thankfully, the gathering of so many Verminkind is impossible naturally, the fall of Hamlin was masterminded by a terrorist group who shipped both the Piper and the Verminkind to the village in question, but for the purposes of this exercise no limitations were placed on the natural concentrations of Grimm. With a mob gathered, the Pipers can then whip their fellow Grimm into a frenzy, causing a small increase in their strength and then allowing the Pipers to direct them with their music."

The Hunter was moving in somewhat of a random pattern, clearly searching for the source of the music to eliminate it aggressively, something that greatly differed from the RWBY animation where there had been a clear effort to stay behind the villages static defences.

"Killing a Piper will cause the Grimm in a Grimm mob to temporarily attack anything nearby, including the other Grimm in the mob. For this reason it is vital to kill a Piper as soon as possible once the Grimm begin to converge, as it vastly reduces the threat of the Grimm mob. In fact, during my younger days it was considered a valid if controversial tactic to capture a piper alive, use it to summon all the low level Grimm in the area before killing the Piper, causing the Grimm to wipe themselves out and make the area much safer." The practice had been outlawed about twenty years ago, when a Grimm mob and its Piper survived to destroy several large Mistrali villages before disappearing into the Wilds.

Before the Hunter could reach the Piper though the wave of Red moved in his direction and the view changed to what must have been the Hunter, the woodland he was searching through suddenly becoming enveloped in a veritable tide of black and red and white. The hunter barely managed to fire of a few dust rounds from his assault rifle/spear combi weapon before his vision was surrounded by the thousands of claws and tiny teeth, his aura level dropping so rapidly that if Velvet hadn't been watching she would have assumed that it had occurred instantly.

"Aura can protect you from a lot, but that many attacks from all sides will sap it far more quickly that a single blow from most larger Grimm. I won't show the rest of the simulation, but this is the reason we encourage all of you to learn at least basic dust use and carry some fire dust on you at all times, you never know when it might save you or your team's life." It was possibly the single most useful lesson Port had ever imparted and something that Velvet knew even she had been guilty of ignoring, after all with her Semblance why would she need dust?

"Now, normally I would have picked team JNPR based on their combat score rating, but it has been pointed out to me by the Headmaster that I only said the team that could come up with an effective combination of Grimm to wipe out a village would be the winners, which means that picking one team or another would be disobeying the spirit of the competition. Therefore, if teams RWBY and JNPR would join me to discuss the mission, the rest of you are welcome to a free half period. Perhaps some of you might wish to use the time to discuss how to improve for the next essay I will set in a fortnight?"

Judging by the queasy expressions still present on a few faces, Velvet couldn't help but think that for some, what they had witnessed and planning ahead for another Grimm attack would be the last thing on their minds...

 **A/N: I had originally planned for this to be two separate chapters, to give people a chance to plan their own Grimm attack, but there wasn't enough meat for me to put in the middle to do so in the end.**

 **In terms of Grimm studies, I wanted to make the class less of joke than it is in the series, even if that was no doubt intentional from the creators PoV. And what better way to test your understanding of the monstrous Grimm than by having you 'command' them? Port will switch it up of course, with later essays having them plan the defence or command of larger units etc. If nothing else it makes the students understand how to defend a town or settlement better, simply by learning what not to do.**

 **What do people think of Mutalis Grimm (Got the idea looking at the Beringel in the Vol 4 Prequel and I think it's quite cool)? And the Verminkind? In RWBY as well as other fanfic favourites it has become commonplace to feel the need to 'one up' the enemies compared to the canon, in no small part due to the fact that most fanfics super charge at least one of the character's to the point that normal enemies don't cut it.**

 **But when they do in RWBY the new Grimm are either intelligent to the point that they can use tactics like humans, strong enough to make normal hunters seem weak, or both! I have tried to avoid both of these as well as to give a poignant reminder about the true threat that the Grimm pose in my eyes. Intelligent Grimm are dangerous, yes, but as proved in the show that intelligence actually seriously helps the Kingdoms.**

 **Goliaths have learned that going near Vale means they will die, intelligent elder Grimm will fall back rather than fight to the death even if doing so meant killing a couple more huntsmen, imagine if they didn't have that restraint? Self-preservation amongst the Grimm is actually something that helps as much if not more than it hinders in my opinion. I'll leave that one for people to stew on.**

 **And I almost forgot, Weiss sending a contract to her father to obtain Jaune's services, how do you think he will react? What price will he demand from the pair of them in return for this?**

 **As always, review and let me know what you think, see you all next time!**

 **Defias out!**


End file.
